Strategic Use New Media Peaceful Social Change

GUIDEBOOK FOR THE 

Strategic Use of New Media 

for Peaceful Social Change 

DALIA HAJ-OMAR 

a project by 

Sawtna 

.net

Copyright © 2015 by Dalia Haj-Omar 

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 

4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit 

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. 

ISBN 978-0-9838647-9-0 

Credits 

Photo credits 

Front cover: Bashir Hamid 

Chapter 1: 

Chapter 2: 

Chapter 3: 

Chapter 4: 

Chapter 5: 

Conclusion: 

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GUIDEBOOK FOR THE 

Strategic Use of New Media 

for Peaceful Social Change

Strategic Use of New Media for Peaceful Social Change iii 

Contents 

Acknowledgements 

v 

Introduction 1 

Why this guidebook and what to expect 1 

Chapter 1: Blogging 5 

The global debate: the impact of ICTs on collective action 

and social change 7 

The Egyptian blogosphere before the Revolution 12 

Interviews: A snapshot of the Sudanese blogosphere 14 

A conversation with Sudanese blogger Amir Ahmad Nasr 14 

Reflecting on Sudan’s contemporary blogosphere with 

Omnia Shawkat 20 

Why do you need a blog in the age of Twitter and Facebook? 25 

Choosing a blog platform: Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr 26 

Chapter 2: Twitter 29 

A brief introduction to Twitter 31 

How to gain followers on Twitter 32 

How to organize a social media campaign 38 

Measuring impact: social media analytics and real-time 

tracking of online campaigns 40 

Interview with Sudanese cartoonist Khalid Albaih 44 

Citizen journalism during Iran’s “Green Revolution” 50 

Revisiting the offline and digital campaign for Nuba 

Mountains detainee Jalila Khamis 53 

What Sudanese activists are learning from digital campaigns 

for political detainees 57 

Some useful social media applications 58

iv Strategic Use of New Media for Peaceful Social Change 

Chapter 3: Crisis mapping 61 

Crowdsourcing: definitions and practical uses 63 

Crisis mapping: a basic introduction 65 

Other mapping platforms and what they offer 69 

Top crisis mapping challenges and selected solutions 74 

Interviews 79 

The uses and challenges of crisis mapping in Sudan and 

what we are learning 79 

How HarassMap in Egypt is using crisis mapping to fight 

the sexual harassment of women 84 

Fareed Zain: Sudan Vote Monitor 92 

Chapter 4: Crowdfunding 95 

A basic introduction to crowdfunding 97 

Trends in crowdfunding and the rise of civic crowdfunding 100 

Crowdfunding for countries under US sanctions 103 

Choosing a crowdfunding platform 105 

The story of #Nafeer: crowdsourcing in action 109 

How to run a successful crowdfunding campaign 112 

Interview 115 

Crowdfunding for the OUR SUDAN short film 115 

Chapter 5: Digital security 119 

Why digital security matters: global trends and the decline 

in net freedoms 121 

Internet freedoms in Sudan 124 

Protection against viruses, spyware and malware 128 

Using phones and mobile devices securely 130 

Resources for digital activists at risk 137 

Foundations for safe online browsing and communication 139 

Interviews 146 

The basics of digital security 146 

Mesh networking as a solution for poor connectivity or 

network interruptions 149 

Sudanese civil society and its digital security challenges 152 

Conclusion 155

Strategic Use of New Media for Peaceful Social Change v 

Acknowledgements 

This guidebook was inspired by the creative and free spirit of youth-led 

movements and civil society, in Sudan and globally, who are using information 

and communication technologies (ICTs) for peaceful social change. It is the 

outcome of my personal journey, a product of learning-by-doing, and a gift 

to a new generation in the hope that it can move forward from where others 

left, and not start from scratch. 

I am particularly thankful to the generous contribution of ten artists, writers, 

activists, civil society practitioners and experts working on the intersection of 

technology and human rights, peacebuilding and democracy or using ICTs 

to expand the impact of their work in these fields. They include: Amir Ahmad 

Nasr, Omnia Shawkat, Khalid Albaih, Helena Puig Larrauri, Rebecca Chiao, 

Fareed Zain, Dimah Abdulkarim, Eric Johnson, Nat Meysenburg and Abdel- 

Rahman El-Mahdi. Through in-depth interviews, they have shared their 

valuable insights and experiences, making this guide much more practical, 

and complementing the case studies with compelling real-life wisdom. Their 

stories taught me that passion and creativity can transform ICTs into tools 

for social good – especially when the technology is used strategically. 

A special thank you to colleagues who edited the final English manuscript, 

and to Rodrigo Davies and Helena Puig Larrauri for peer reviewing and 

lending their expertise to the chapters on crisis mapping and crowdfunding. 

Deep gratitude to Mohammed Al Maskati for teaching me about digital 

security in the most entertaining and fluid manner. 

I am endlessly grateful to the small team that made the journey enjoyable. 

The first iteration of this guidebook was released on the bilingual website 

that can be used in parallel with the guidebook www.sawtna.net. This would 

not have been possible without the technical support and diligence of web 

developer and designer Mosaab Baba. The talented translator and editor 

Azaz Shami oversaw the Arabic translation and editing of both the website 

and this guidebook. hajooj kuka provided illustrations, infographics and 

photography support. Animation artist and graphic designer, Bashir Hamid, 

created the front cover. And many others – especially my family – kept me 

going through their encouragement, thoughtful feedback and support.

vi Strategic Use of New Media for Peaceful Social Change 

Key to icons 

Additional readings and materials. 

Case studies. 

Interviews.

Strategic Use of New Media for Peaceful Social Change 1 

Introduction 

INTRODUCTION 

Why this guidebook and what to 

expect 

The role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and especially 

social media, in exchanging and disseminating information and enhancing 

public awareness as well as enabling collective action, collaborative 

initiatives and rapid mobilization, has now become a non-contested matter 

of fact. Some have gone as far as calling them “liberation technologies” that 

have helped herald a “fourth wave of democracy” in parts of the Middle East 

and North Africa in recent years. 1 

Those technologies were mostly embraced by non-organized citizens in 

closed societies where the physical space for discussion was not available 

and where thousands of people were moving to virtual spaces online to 

allow the free expression of opinions, the building of complex networks, 

the creation of social capital and finally political/social organization and 

mobilization. 2 

Digital technology has therefore revolutionized the way citizens and interest 

groups communicate and share information as well as the ease, scope and 

reach of activities due to the speed, reliability, scale, relative security and low 

cost of digital networks. 3 

To capitalize on these “liberation technologies,” this guide is written with the 

intention of targeting the Sudanese civil society in its most diverse sense, 

including journalists, pro-democracy activists, youth movement members 

and those working in the humanitarian sector, as well as non-organized 

citizens seeking to increase their civic participation in the public domain 

and online. It is a “how to” guide that stirs users toward good practices in 

using social media and ICTs more strategically for advocacy, campaigning, 

mobilization, dissemination of information and crowdsourcing. Our 

discussion will shed light on how digital activism is being used; when it is 

successful; and what impact it has on social movement processes and on 

the scale of change. 

1 Philip N. Howard and Muzammil M. Hussain. Democracy’s Fourth Wave? Digital 

Media and the Arab Spring. Oxford University Press. 2013. 

2 Ibid., pp. 17-18. 

3 Mary Joyce. Digital Activism Decoded: The New Mechanics of Change. 

International Debate Education Association, New York and Amsterdam. 2010. 

P. viii.

2 

Strategic Use of New Media for Peaceful Social Change 

Mobile phone subscribers in Sudan 2012-2013 

88% 

More 

than 27 million phone 

subscribers and coverage of 88 

percent, extending to 800 cities 

Data source: National Telecommunications Corporation (NTC), 2013. 

Sudan’s mobile and internet penetration 

100 

In 2012 Sudan’s Intenet penetration rate stood at 21% and mobile 

penetration at 60.49%. Sudan boasts the cheapest mobile post paid 

costs in the Middle East & North Africa, and healthy market competition 

amongst four telecom operators. 

90 

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 

Mobile penetration rate (%) 

Internet penetration rate (%) 

Data source: International Telecommunications Union & World Bank.


The ICT sector in Sudan has experienced a remarkable boom in the last 

decade with a steadily increasing internet penetration rate of 23 percent in 

2013 (up from 21 percent in 2012, 19 percent in 2011, and 16.7 percent 

in 2010). 4 Mobile phone penetration has also seen a sharp increase since 

2000, standing at 75 percent by the end of 2013 – according to the 

International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 5 Although there are no hard 

statistics, our experience tells us that more citizens (especially youth) in 

Sudan are accessing the internet on their mobile phones than ever before. 

This is mainly because Sudan also boasts the cheapest post-paid mobile 

phone costs in the Middle East and North Africa (2012), made possible due 

to healthy market competition amongst four telecommunications providers. 

In early 2013, the National Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) reported 

more than 27 million cell phone subscribers in 2012 and a coverage of 88 

percent that extends to 800 cities and towns. 

This guide will build on the above-mentioned gains in Sudan’s ICT 

infrastructure. It is meant to be user-friendly and will draw from the experience 

of Sudanese youth movements and civil society groups that actively use new 

media and ICTs, as well as from the regional and international experience 

of civil society in countries such as Egypt, Iran, and Kenya, to mention a 

few. This will be done by providing a rich array of case studies, interviews, 

analysis, theories and examples to help guide you toward being better digital 

communicators; designing better online campaigns; and understanding 

what combination of digital tools can work to serve you more efficiently. 

The guide also assumes that its users are already using social media and 

ICTs to some extent and are looking for resources to improve their strategies 

and expand their tools beyond what is traditionally used. 

While this guide will explain the evolution and potential use of a variety of 

digital applications and tools (such as blogs, Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook) 

as well as concepts (such as crowdsourcing, crowd fundraising, crisis 

mapping and digital security), except for the case of Twitter, it will not teach 

you how to use these tools as much as it will guide you toward resources 

to investigate the tools and enrich your understanding on how to use those 

applications to their maximum potential when working for peaceful social 

change and expanded civic participation. 

INTRODUCTION 

4 http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.P2. 

5 ITU data. Sudan mobile subscribers from 2000 to end of 2012.

CHAPTER 1 

Blogging 

BLOGGING 

1

6 


CHAPTER 1 

Blogging 

This chapter begins with an overview of the global 

conversation that activists, as well as internet 

and social media scholars, are having regarding 

the impact of ICTs on collective action and social 

change. 

We then move our focus to blogging and its advantages by first looking at 

the Egyptian blogosphere prior to Egypt’s 2011 revolution and how activists 

who doubled as citizen journalists and bloggers challenged the limits of 

press freedom and freedom of expression during Mubarak’s era. 

Shifting the focus toward Sudan we have two interviews about the Sudanese 

blogosphere and its evolution since 2006. Sudanese blogger and author 

Amir Ahmad Nasr spoke about the early years of the Sudanese blogosphere 

as well as his journey as a blogger that culminated in the publication of his 

book in 2013, My Isl@m: How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind – and Doubt 

Freed My Soul. 6 Cultural analyst Omnia Shawkat gives us an overview 

of currently active bloggers, the overriding themes in today’s Sudanese 

blogosphere, and how it reflects the country’s cultural scene. 

We conclude with a brief discussion on why blogging matters in the age of 

Facebook and Twitter. We then present a practical comparison between 

three popular and free blogging platforms (Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr), 

explaining what they are best suited for and who should use them. This also 

encompasses a discussion about domain names and hosting options for 

personal and/or institutional blogs. 

6 Amir Ahmad Nasr. My Isl@m: How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind – and Doubt 

Freed My Soul. St. Martin’s Press. 2013.


The global debate: the impact 

of ICTs on collective action and 

social change 

With the advent of Facebook and Twitter, even before the Arab Spring 

revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, a debate erupted about the real impact 

of social media tools on peaceful social change and civic engagement. In 

his controversial article, Why the revolution will not be tweeted, 7 Malcolm 

Gladwell argued against the efficiency of social media tools for activism. 

Using the American civil rights movement as a point of reference, he asserted 

that online activism allows only weak links or relationships to develop 

amongst people. He added that online organizing lacks the hierarchy and 

structure required to make organized activities work and endure and that 

online activism also lacks the “high risk” that compels people to act. 

Responding to Gladwell in Malcolm Gladwell is #Wrong, 8 a prominent 

young blogger Maria Popova asserts that, while “slacktivism” (passively 

associating with online causes) is a real problem, social media has been 

vital in raising awareness about critical issues and galvanizing action around 

them. “While awareness is certainly not a sufficient condition for activism, it 

is a necessary one,” she adds: 

Most human rights violations, from discrimination to genocide, 

can be attributed to one or both of two root causes: pluralistic 

ignorance (the tendency of a group’s members to incorrectly 

believe that the majority condones an injustice) and diffusion of 

responsibility (the conviction that someone else will take action 

against the injustices we are aware of). It takes a critical mass of 

awareness and assignment of responsibility for injustice to end. 

While the social web, with its inherent anonymity and predilection 

for slacktivism, may do little in the way of assigning responsibility, 

it has a monumental effect on awareness. 

Popova also debunks Gladwell’s assertion that online activism carries low 

risk, by reminding us that political bloggers and online journalists in nondemocratic 

countries such as Egypt and Yemen are getting detained for 

expressing themselves online. She adds that governments in countries like 

China and Uzbekistan are infringing on freedom of speech online through 

heavy online censorship and cyber attacks on bloggers and online activists. 

Hence, online activism does carry serious physical security risks in closed 

societies. 

BLOGGING 

1 

7 The New Yorker. Malcolm Gladwell. Why the revolution will not be tweeted. 

October 4, 2010. 

8 Design Observer. Maria Popova. Malcolm Gladwell is #Wrong. October 6, 2010.

8 


Responding to Gladwell’s point about the lack of hierarchies within the 

social web, Popova says: “Ultimately Gladwell’s mistake is seeing online 

and offline social networks as disjointed mechanisms.” She insists that 

hierarchies within the social web do exist, giving the example that those 

with a large following on Twitter can draw on their online network to reach 

large audiences. 

Giving examples from her personal life, Popova also dispels the claim that 

online interactions do not allow strong relationships to be built, adding that 

connections on social media can and have led to deep conversations that 

then transformed to offline relationships. 

Social media and internet scholar Clay Shirky, in his book Here Comes 

Everybody: the Power of Organizing Without Organizations, 9 points out that 

ICTs have created new incentives for groups to act collectively by cutting the 

costs and difficulties, which existed in the past, associated with collective 

action and with managing groups. 

On the other hand, Evgeny Morozov, who studied “the dark side of the 

internet” and how it is used to impede democratization, targets the more 

optimistic view of the internet. In his book, The Net Delusion: the Dark 

Side of Internet Freedom, 10 he stresses that the internet is good and bad 

for promoting democratic policy – it helps both dictators and democratic 

movements. He cites the Iranian government’s swift reaction after the 

“Green Revolution”, when it employed the very tools used by citizen activists 

and demonstrators to identify and arrest protesters. 11 

His main thesis is that the internet has become the new front for State 

propaganda, censorship and surveillance and that social media can 

implicate digital activists much more easily than traditional State intelligence. 

Morozov cautions against the Western coverage of the internet that is 

mostly dedicated to exploring the positive or “Cyber-Utopian” side of 

the internet. His philosophy is one of “cyber-realism”, where he urges a 

balanced understanding of the way the internet is used. He also cautions 

against “slacktivism” 12 and points out that Facebook and Twitter will not and 

cannot replace traditional forms of activism; they should only complement 

“real-life campaigns”. 13 

9 Clay Shirky. Here Comes Everybody: the Power of Organizing Without 

Organizations. Penguin Press. 2008. PP. 22-23. 

10 Evgeyny Morozov. The Net Delusion: the Dark Side of Internet Freedom. Public 

Affairs. 2011. 

11 Ibid., p. 11. 

12 Foreign Policy Magazine. Evgeny Morozov. The brave new world of slacktivism. 

May 19, 2011. 

13 Morozov defines “slacktivism” as a “feel-good online activism that has zero 

political impact,” and gives those who participate “an illusion of having a 

meaningful impact without demanding anything more than joining a Facebook 

group.” Ibid.


Global digital snapshot – January 2015 14 

A snapshot of the world’s key digital statistical indicators 

TOTAL 

POPULATION 

ACTIVE INTERNET 

USERS 

ACTIVE 

SOCIAL MEDIA 

ACCOUNTS 

UNIQUE 

MOBILE 

USERS 

ACTIVE 

MOBILE SOCIAL 

ACCOUNTS 

BLOGGING 

1 

7.210 

BILLION 

3.010 

BILLION 

2.078 

BILLION 

3.649 

BILLION 

1.685 

BILLION 

URBANISATION: 

53% 

PENETRATION: 

42% 

PENETRATION: 

29% 

PENETRATION: 

51% 

PENETRATION: 

23% 

Figure represents total 

global population, 

including children 

Figure includes access 

via fixed and mobile 

connections 

Figure represents 

active user accounts, 

not unique users 


unique mobile 

phone users 


active user accounts, 

not unique users 

We Are Social • Sources: Wikipedia; InternetLiveStats, InternetWorldStats; Facebook, Tencent, 

VKontakte, LiveIntenret; GMSA Intelligence 

14 

The Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah 15 responds to those who caution 

against “slacktivism” by reminding them that “slacktivism is a dangerous 

notion when you have options to do actual politics, but then choose to 

do something easy.” 16 However, in Mubarak’s era “‘slacktivism’ normalized 

political participation,” he says. He also adds that in Egypt, “factories and 

universities is where the real politics happen,” and the internet supported 

that by offering a medium that built “a single narrative that talks about 

revolution.” 

Zeynep Tufekci, 17 a sociologist who explores the intersection between 

technology and society, reflects on the use of technology during the Arab 

Spring and how it aided collective action by citizens. 18 Tufekci’s research 

and analysis implies that dictators in the Middle East did not fall earlier due 

14 We Are Social (blog). Digital Social & Mobile Worldwide in 2015. January 21, 

2015. 

15 FastCompany. What Makes Egyptian Blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah so Dangerous? 

March 28, 2014. 

16 YouTube. Personal Democracy Forum. Video: Alaa abd el Fattah: Weaving a 

network for change: Egypt. June 14, 2011. 

17 http://technosociology.org. 

18 YouTube. Ars Electronica. Public Square Squared – Zeynap Tufekci – EN. 

September 4, 2011.

10 


to a “collective cost problem,” meaning that citizens were not collaborating 

effectively because they perceived the costs to be too high (torture, 

detention, censorship, restricted organization). According to Tufekci, this 

“collective cost problem” was the key factor in allowing authoritarian regimes 

to endure for decades. 

Although Tufekci acknowledges that there were multiple factors that led to 

the toppling of dictators in Egypt and Tunisia through popular revolt, she 

also credits the “new-media ecology” composed of satellite TV, cell phones 

with video capacity and social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter). 

This “new-media ecology” made it much harder for governments to censor 

and break up complex many-to-many networks of citizens connecting via 

social media after expressing common preferences for change. However, 

Tufekci cautions that, although new media tools have worked in creating a 

“cascade” to get rid of unpopular dictators, it is not clear how those same 

tools will work in the democratization phase. 

She adds that huge mobilizations, organized via social media, have often 

not led to changes in policies at the desired scale in countries like Egypt, 

Turkey and Ukraine. The reason, she says, is that social media have had 

the effect of a double-edged sword: they allow fast, large-scale and cost 

efficient mobilization, but valuable time is lost that (before the advent of the 

internet) was used to slowly organize and strategize, in order to identify 

tactics that will sustain momentum. 19 

In her critique of Morozov’s book, The Net Delusion, Tufekci asserts that 

the internet has been one of the most empowering technologies in human 

history, and that the problem lies not with the technology, but with “citizen 

disempowerment” and “politics that has failed.” She continues to say: 

I do think Morozov underestimates the ecological effect of the 

Internet in potentially undermining the legitimacy of authoritarian 

regimes. Crushing of dissidents individually may certainly help 

an authoritarian regime remain in power in the short term, but 

too much repression, coupled with an unhappy citizenry that is 

able to share their displeasure with one another, can hollow out a 

regime’s legitimacy, ultimately crippling its capacity for repression, 

as there is almost no purely coercive regime. In other words, while 

increased capacity for surveillance may be a very real threat to 

individual dissidents, broadening the repressive apparatus often 

ultimately backfires, especially under conditions with lower barriers 

to collective action and information diffusion, both of which are 

promoted by the Internet. 20 

19 New York Times. Zeynep Tufekci. After the Protests. March 19, 2014. 

20 The Atlantic. Zeynep Tufekci. Delusions Aside, the Net’s Potential Is Real. 

January 12, 2011.


A research study by the University of Washington in Seattle, looking at the 

relationship between digital activism and non-violence, collected the first 

comprehensive data set of protests from around the world. 21 The study 

concluded that digital activists rarely resorted to cyber-crimes or hacking, 

and that Facebook and Twitter were the social media tools that globally 

dominated digital campaigns. However, the study also noted that there were 

variations across regions and that there is no “‘killer app’ that makes some 

campaigns more successful than others.” The more diverse is the digital 

toolkit, the higher the possibility of success. The target of digital campaigns 

also mattered: “If the objective is change of government or government 

policy, civil society groups have demonstrated success with just modest 

street protests and a few digital tools. Both recipes for success are true 

regardless of regime type.” 22 

BLOGGING 

1 

Some videos to watch 

Al Jazeera Stream. Cyber realism versus Cyber-utopians. 23 

TED Talk. Evgeny Morozov: How the Net aids dictatorships. 24 

Personal Democracy Forum. Alaa abd el Fattah: Weaving a network for 

change: Egypt. 25 

Zeynep Tufekci speaks about social media and collective action under 

authoritarian regimes. 26 

21 Frank Edwards, Philip N. Howard and Mary Joyce. Report on Digital Activism 

and Non-Violent Conflict. November 20, 2013. 

22 The first data set included a total of 1,180 cases from 151 countries from 1982 to 

2012. Another data set was comprised of 426 coded cases from 100 countries 

between 2010 and 2012. 

23 Al Jazeera Stream. Cyber realism versus Cyber-utopians. September 1, 2011. 

24 TED. Evgeny Morozv. How the Net aids dictatorships. July 2009. 

25 YouTube. Personal Democracy Forum. Alaa abd el Fattah: Weaving a network 

for change: Egypt. June 14, 2011. 

26 YouTube. Ars Electronica. Public Square Squared – Zeynap Tufekci – EN. 

September 4, 2011.

12 


CASE STUDY 1: EGYPT 

The Egyptian blogosphere 

before the Revolution 

Between 2002 and 2006, before the age of Facebook and Twitter, 

bloggers were the main online activists and “citizen journalists” in 

Egypt. They led the independent media and pushed the limits of press 

freedom by: 

● Breaking stories that would have otherwise been overlooked. 

Egyptian bloggers broke major stories on sexual harassment, 

election fraud (in 2005), police brutality, and the mistreatment of 

Sudanese refugees. 

● Documenting stories with unique photographic and video 

evidence. The Egyptian bloggers were actually active on the 

ground. They organized events and demonstrations and used their 

cameras to cover events that the traditional media would not cover. 

● Transmitting stories to a global audience. Blogs, unlike 

Facebook today, were mostly open to all viewers, with some blogs 

getting thousands of visitors daily, such as that of the famous blogger 

Wael Abbas, 27 “Al Wa’ii Al Masri,” that was getting up to 30,000 hits 

a day. 28 

● Speaking about topics that were “off limits” to the traditional 

Egyptian media, such as criticizing the regime or the military. By the 

end of 2004, movements such as “Kifaya” started to gain a following 

and were asking for change in the run-up to the 2005 elections. 

They held demonstrations that were not covered by the traditional 

media. Bloggers filled this gap by posting footage and photos of 

these events that often included police clashing with protesters. 

● Collaborating with both citizens and the traditional media 

through blogging. For example, footage showing the torture of 

prisoners in police stations was given to the blogger Wael Abbas. 

This footage, which was only published online, was used as 

evidence in the court trial of a police officer, who was later sentenced 

to three years’ imprisonment. In other cases traditional journalists 

used recordings and photos taken by bloggers without mentioning 

the source. This alliance between bloggers and traditional journalists 

created a new kind of journalism. 29 

27 http://misrdigital.blogspirit.com. 

28 Reporters Without Borders. Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents. 

March 2008. PP. 40-41. 

29 My heart’s in Accra (blog). Wael Abbas on video and social media in Egypt prior 

to the revolution. January 13, 2012.


The Egyptian government’s response 

● As early as 2002 the Egyptian government was wary of bloggers and 

set up a special intelligence unit to survey blogs. 

● In 2006, there was a big attack on bloggers during a protest resulting 

in mass arrests and up to two months’ arbitrary detention for some. 

In reaction, a lot of the bloggers reduced their activities and some 

even left Egypt. 

BLOGGING 

1 

How Egyptian bloggers are adapting in the age 

of Facebook and Twitter 

● Today the bloggers of the last decade are adapting. For example, 

Wael Abbas says that he is using new platforms, such as the microblogging 

tool Twitter to adapt to the times. He says Twitter allows 

him to cover an event in real-time by linking it to his mobile phone’s 

camera. 

● Hence, the bloggers of the new era are pushing media boundaries 

and competing with media giants such as Al Jazeera and the BBC, 

who, in the absence of access to certain places, have no choice but 

to depend on citizen journalists.

14 


Interviews: 

A snapshot of the Sudanese 

blogosphere 

A conversation with Sudanese blogger Amir 

Ahmad Nasr 

Amir Ahmad Nasr is the author of a recently published 

autobiography, My Isl@m: How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind – 

and Doubt Freed My Soul. He was one of the first Sudanese bloggers 

to blog in English and the most famous. The book started as a sixyear 

journey of anonymous blogging to unearth difficult questions 

about Islam, identity, the politics of the Middle East region and much 

more. It has a lot of references to online activism and communities of 

interest in the Arab and Islamic blogosphere. It is probably one of the 

best Sudanese documents on the impact of blogging and how it can 

move to collective and concrete action – albeit in a more global and 

regional sense – especially in closed and undemocratic societies. 

In Sudan we have not yet capitalized on the power of blogging like 

other countries with more substantial blogospheres. 

In this interview, Amir explains what led him to blog, why he blogged 

for six years, and what impact that had on his life. 

(The interview has been edited for brevity.)


Q1. In your book, My Isl@m, you observed in 2006 that “a 

Sudanese blogosphere made of Sudanese bloggers speaking 

about Sudanese issues, was nowhere to be found.” This 

absence of a Sudanese blogosphere a few years ago was 

obviously a motivator to you. Can you tell us when and why 

you started blogging? 

I started blogging in April 2006. By complete accident I discovered 

this website called The Big Pharaoh. 30 After exploring it, I noticed 

it didn’t look like a typical website. When I looked at it and I read, I 

realized it was something called “a blog.” 

In a blog you have different posts, in sequence, from the older to 

the newest post. And the newest post tends to be on the top, 

and blog posts are arranged sequentially. Then there’s a comment 

section where people can write their thoughts and respond to you 

directly as a blogger. I was fascinated and blown away by the format 

and how “The Big Pharaoh” was using it to write about all sorts of 

controversial issues in Egypt. He was a secular and very liberal guy, 

and he was talking about sex, God, politics, women’s rights, Islam 

and atheism. Things that were really provocative, and that people 

wouldn’t dare talk about openly. 

I was intrigued because I had a lot of questions growing up that I was 

too scared to confront and to answer. Questions about the nature 

of religion and the nature of God. About the Quran and whether it is 

really the word of God. And “The Big Pharaoh” was tackling these 

questions openly, so I became obsessed. In his blogs he linked 

to other blogs, including Iraqi blogs and Palestinian blogs, Saudi 

and Algerian. They were all talking about the different issues that 

they confronted in their countries. The Iraqi blogosphere during the 

American-led invasion of Iraq was very active and the conversation 

was very heated. 

Darfur was a horrendous tragedy in 2006-2007, and I asked myself: 

“Egyptians are talking about Egyptian issues and others are talking 

about their issues. Where are the Sudanese bloggers?” There were 

other [English-language] blogs, but they were also authored by non- 

Sudanese. So I asked “Big Pharaoh,” and he told me, “as far as 

I know I’ve never come across a Sudanese blog in English, by a 

Sudanese. Why don’t you be the first one?” 

My reaction was: I don’t have much to say, I wasn’t an expert on 

politics, I didn’t have much knowledge. His response to me was: 

“Tell stories.” So I began writing about Darfur and educating myself, 

and through this process I learned a lot. 

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30 http://bigpharaoh.org.

16 


Q2. In your view how has the Sudanese blogosphere evolved 

since then? 

In April 2006 there was no Sudanese blogosphere. I went to online 

forums like “Shamarat” and “Sudan.net,” and I tried to get people 

who were posting actively in those forums to blog. I told them that 

writing in these forums limits them to the Sudanese audience that 

visits the forums but, when it comes to the rest of the world, no 

one is seeing what they have to say. Blogging is a more powerful 

medium. When you blog, you have complete control to say whatever 

you want. There is no administrator who can kick you out, ban you 

or delete your stuff. You have sovereignty on that medium and it’s 

open to the world and people can engage with you. I succeeded to 

recruit a few who in turn recruited others. And we began having a 

small active Sudanese blogosphere. 

Between 2006 and 2009, I was the only one blogging very actively. 

Many of the others had to stop blogging and became inactive. I will 

definitely give credit to Reem, who had a blog with the tagline “I have 

no tribe, I’m Sudanese,” and her blog remained active, along with a 

few others. 31 

The biggest challenge was that many people were not active. 

Thankfully that changed. As more people joined, more blogs started 

and I became less active by 2011. But unlike before, when we 

had a Sudanese blogosphere, the bloggers were not interacting 

together and networking, engaging and discussing, because now 

the conversation shifted to Twitter and Facebook. 

In a sense that was a positive development, because the good 

thing about Facebook is that you don’t need to build an audience. 

Sudanese bloggers abandoned blogging because, when you blog, 

you don’t just blog, you have to market your post and you have to 

engage others to read what you have to say. And if no one is reading 

what you’re writing, then you lose motivation. While on Facebook, 

your friends and their friends are the audience. 

Unfortunately, on Facebook, and even more on Twitter, you are not 

able to discuss much when you have 140 characters. It’s not the 

same as writing a coherent, well-thought-out article that’s 1000 

words long. You just write a short post on your [Facebook] status 

update that is 200-300 words, and people like it and comment; 

that is it. But are we really having a deep, important, intellectual 

conversation? The blogosphere was excellent for that because you 

would write long arguments, and elaborate on your point. 

I was lucky to build an audience that was active, and who read my 

writings even when it was a long post. There are pros and cons. 

Right now there are more Sudanese bloggers, but they are not as 

31 http://www.wholeheartedly-sudaniya.blogspot.com.


tightly knit. The conversation isn’t really happening amongst them. 

They are not discussing things together; they are not having a good 

debate. The conversation is on Facebook. And it’s in the form of 

short comments. Which is not a bad thing, but again it does not 

allow you to discuss a topic in depth. 

Q3. You describe your relationship with blogging as: “A quest 

to learn and unlearn. To blog and to grow.” How did this 

journey of learning and unlearning go? What were the ups 

and downs? What were the highlights? 

The positive thing that comes with “unlearning” is that unlearning 

involves questioning and rejecting what doesn’t make sense. I think 

unlearning is a lot more important than learning. Because if you learn, 

and what you already know or what you think you know is flawed, 

then what you learn is going to be built on top of a foundation that 

is messed up, tainted, toxic and full of lies. The upside to that is that 

you get to discard a lot of nonsense, lies, propaganda, dogma, and 

indoctrination; and that is extremely liberating. It makes you a more 

enlightened person. 

The downside is that this is a painful and messy process sometimes. 

Especially when you are unlearning, questioning and rejecting things 

that are considered taboo. I happily and openly state in this interview 

right now that I consider myself mostly a non-believing Muslim. 

Meaning I don’t believe dogmatically in the doctrines that we’re 

supposed to believe in. That comes as part of the questioning, the 

unlearning and the rejection of the things that don’t make sense. 

I have my own spiritual practice. I consider myself a Sufi-oriented 

Muslim. It’s a spirituality of mine, and it’s a cultural identity. 

BLOGGING 

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Q4. When describing the Arab blogosphere you say in the 

book that “an intellectual revolution was happening in the 

Arab blogosphere,” and that “Arab dissidents and political 

‘heretics’ of all stripes were discovering one another online 

and slowly forming a massive self-organized network.” 

Can you elaborate on how those online interactions were 

transforming into concrete networks in real life offline? 

With blogging what happens is that you begin to realize: “I’m not 

the only one with radical ideas. I’m not the only one asking these 

questions”. When you realize that there are many people all over 

the world who have similar backgrounds like you, and who have 

been asking these questions, and have been in pain and they 

have struggled, you feel a sense of kinship with these individuals. 

So you begin to email each other, and to network and have Skype 

conversations and chats. You begin to bond.

18 


In many cases the bonding happens over anonymous email 

addresses – you want to be anonymous because you don’t trust 

the other person. But after a while you realize that you can trust 

this person. Then you reveal your real name, people find out who 

you are, then you become friends in real life. You then form a 

network, and organizations step in because they want to facilitate 

the discussion in real life. They create conferences where they invite 

you and the bloggers so that the conversation that happens online 

is taken offline. You meet people for the first time face-to-face, but 

you feel like you’ve known each other forever. There’s a real sense 

of camaraderie. 

There’s a gathering that I wrote about in my book. It was a gathering 

in Beirut in 2009, the second Arab Bloggers summit, and it was 

amazing. That network was crucial during the Arab uprisings 

because there was already a lot of trust among the people. Can 

a similar scenario unfold now? Unfortunately I don’t think it would 

be that easy because these networks are powerful and in some 

cases have been infiltrated. Even with the events that happen now, 

governments are aware of the power of digital media and digital 

activism. So it is not as easy to trust new names and new faces that 

are parts of these movements. Even in my own personal life, my 

circle of trusted friends remains with people that I have known from 

the old days. 

Q5. Finally, you blogged anonymously for six years. Why did 

you choose to do that? Can you speak about the virtues of 

anonymous blogging and what it can offer bloggers in nondemocratic 

settings or where freedom of expression is under 

attack? 

There has been a big debate over the past years about anonymity. 

Google, for example, has a policy where it wants you to use your 

real name. Facebook demands that you use your real name. Some 

people have been fighting that, saying they should make exceptions 

for people who live under regimes that are oppressive. I absolutely 

support that. My friend Jillian York, with the Electronic Frontier 

Foundation, she has been pushing for that. 32 

I believe in the virtue of anonymous blogging. Anonymous blogging 

can be abused, for sure. You can slander people, you can insult 

them, you can defame them, and that’s bad. But the negative side 

does not outweigh the positives of anonymous blogging, because 

when you’re anonymous you’re able to write provocatively, honestly, 

frankly, and in a blunt and straightforward manner about topics that 

need to be robustly discussed. In many countries around the world 

one cannot do that with one’s real name. 

32 https://www.eff.org.


In my case I said what I said anonymously because I was afraid of the 

repercussions. The beauty of anonymous blogging is that (and I’ve 

seen people go through this transformation) you blog anonymously 

and you’re afraid, then you develop a sense of conviction, then you 

realize that you don’t like being anonymous anymore. Which is why 

I made that conscious decision to reveal my identity during the Arab 

uprisings in 2011. I had friends in Tahrir Square in Egypt, and friends 

who went to Libya who risked their lives, and I am going to worry 

about anonymity? 

Was [revealing my identity] a beautiful event that had no 

consequences? No, because after I revealed my identity I got into 

certain issues and I had challenges. I will not elaborate on what they 

are, but it came at a cost. Was it worth it? I still say absolutely! But 

it does not mean that I am discarding the virtues of anonymous 

blogging. It is here to stay and it is absolutely important, and I think 

Facebook and Google should seriously reconsider their position on 

this matter. 

BLOGGING 

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Additional reading on Amir Ahmad Nasr 

● Amir’s blog. 33 

● Book review on Amir’s book My Isl@m. 34 

33 http://www.amirahmadnasr.com/blog. 

34 Foreign Policy Magazine. Dalia Haj-Omar. A Frank Debate about Identity and 

Islam. July 30, 2013.

20 


Reflecting on Sudan’s contemporary 

blogosphere with Omnia Shawkat 

Omnia Shawkat is a young Sudanese and global citizen. She 

is an avid commentator on Sudanese current affairs and is 

interested in learning and sharing an intergenerational perspective 

of Sudanese culture. During 2012 and 2013 Omnia did an on-theground 

exploration of the Sudanese cultural scene that was then 

complemented by a survey of Sudanese blogs to study whether the 

richness of Sudan’s cultural diversity was justly reflected online. In 

this interview she tells us about her findings. 

Q1. You have been doing a survey of active Sudanese bloggers 

in 2013. What general trends do you see in terms of topics 

and themes that are addressed (social, cultural, religious, 

political, etc.)? 

I found there is a lot of poetry and political analysis. In both we see 

that the identity matter is reflected in all the writings, no matter what 

the topic is. The themes are usually about belonging [as] there is a 

lot of diaspora writing from all parts of the world. But even Sudanese 

who are blogging [from Sudan] are writing about their own belonging 

and their own culture. 

Q2. How big or small is the Sudanese blogosphere, and are 

the majority blogging from inside Sudan or outside? 

Almost half are in Sudan and half are outside Sudan. So far I have 

come across 33 or 34 blogs that are either political or poetic, or 

creative writing and short stories. A lot of them are people reflecting 

on topics that are of relevance to them, with the topic of Sudanese 

culture as the backdrop. 

Q3. In terms of the on-the-ground cultural scene, can you 

tell us a bit about what’s happening and the kind of activities 

as well as the restrictions? Also, is that cultural scene justly 

reflected online? 

There are a lot of perspectives on that, so let us take it step by 

step. First there is a scene that is targeting the senior audience. 

It attracts Sudanese and non-Sudanese and it is mostly for the 

older generation. That [scene] is more about songs and fine art, 

but it’s also about social issues, and they tend to have fundraisers 

associated with that. It’s been going on for years at the Rashid Diab 

Arts Center for example – it is the most frequent one. The audience 

you see there is quite diverse. You see all types of people but they 

are mostly from the older generation. 35 

35 http://www.rashiddiabartscentre.net/indexen.php.


The younger generation have a more restricted medium to work 

with because they don’t have the same type of sponsorship or 

the diplomatic relations that someone like Dr. Rashid Diab has. 

Their events tend to have a more secretive veil. The networking 

that happens to advertise their events is very small. You won’t find 

posters for their events on bridges and in universities and places 

like that. It would be within a certain network, let’s say a Facebook 

page or a mailing list. The audience is vibrant. It’s Sudanese who 

have been in Sudan all their lives as well as Sudanese who have 

lived outside of Sudan, and it’s a nice mix of Sudanese from one 

generation. They are mostly tech savvy, which is how they get to 

know about these events. One of these examples would be Nas with 

Notepads and before that open mic events. 36 

BLOGGING 

1 

The third scene that I saw was more of an international scene. It 

is diplomats or expats who have cultural events or openings at art 

galleries. It attracts Sudanese who have access to that scene. But 

it’s a reflection of Sudanese culture through their eyes/perspective. 

In terms of restrictions there are definitely a lot of restrictions, 

especially for the youth scene, but also for Dr. Rashid Diab. I interned 

for him for a while, and I remember sitting at the office and seeing 

that they had a lot of issues with permits, especially now compared 

to 2010. The permits are a bit more restricted now and they have to 

go through the security offices. Fundraising has also been a problem. 

But the youth scene is a lot more restricted. They are always worried 

about raids and infiltration by [State security] agents who can shut 

down an event on the spot (which happened with open mic events). 

This is an aspect that they have learned to adapt to from their open 

mic experience. The events have become a lot more secretive and a 

lot more exclusive. So there are ways that people are adapting, but 

it is restricting the movement and restricting the audience. It made 

culture become more “zoned” – so you have zones and “hot spots” 

where culture is and other places where you can’t find that access. 

I don’t know about other States [outside Khartoum] unfortunately, 

but I know that Port Sudan, for example, has a big cultural festival. 

We have a big music industry. If you turn on the Sudan television 

or any of the other networks you’ll find that there’s always singing. 

Whether it’s religious singing, or Madeeh, or normal folklore singing, 

and all kinds of music. But we don’t have an industry per se. You 

would find private parties would hire a singer, but we don’t have 

festivals. You don’t hear about Sudanese singers making it regionally 

or internationally. There are people like Mosno; 37 and Nile, who 

is based in Dubai. But they made it on their own, and there’s no 

36 http://naswithnotepads.com. 

37 500words Magazine. Omnia Shawkat and Ahmad Salah. On Mosno Al- 

Moseeki’s Fairy Tale Novella. May 15, 2014.

22 


movement in Sudan that can propel them further. The ones that 

make it in Sudan, like Taha Suliman, are very popular but there’s 

not that much of a scene outside of the weddings and the shows 

that he does. There’s a few of these concerts, like Igd Algalad and 

such, which you can find posters for publicly and they appeal to a 

wider audience. But they have been around for decades; that’s why 

people know them and love them and they go to them. 

Q4. In a country where freedom of expression and association 

are under attack, is the Sudanese blogosphere coalescing into 

a safe haven for communities of interest? In other words, is it 

allowing discussion of topics that are off-limits otherwise? Is 

it allowing communities of interest to form online? 

Absolutely. Not only are people allowed to talk about politics, which 

is something that they might not have the ability to speak of in a 

public setting, but Sudanese outside of Sudan and Sudanese inside 

of Sudan are finally meeting to talk about shared interests. Also 

internet penetration in Sudan is high, especially for mobile phones, 

so you have Facebook and Twitter. People are on these devices, 

connected to other people talking about topics of interest. 

But I also think that, because we don’t have a big publishing 

industry, poets for example (they don’t have topics that they can’t 

address publicly) have created names for themselves online. If they 

try to publish their work offline it would be very difficult because there 

are a lot of restrictions on publishing houses and there are not a 

lot of funds going to that industry. So they navigated through this 

challenge and found an online haven that can provide for them and 

they could have a network to publicize their work. They can grow 

and even form interest groups where they give each other coaching 

lessons or creative writing lessons and workshops, which is actually 

happening. 

Can you give us examples of these platforms and such 

writers? 

NubianQ has a blog and she is a brilliant writer. 38 She is a short 

story writer but also writes poetry. You’ve got someone like Jogs 

of a Pen (@Shahdinator on Twitter), which is a brilliant poetry blog 

that has been there for years and has beautiful pieces. 39 But also on 

Twitter, for example, the “Jogs of a Pen” author with another author/ 

blogger called Halloya (@Hallaloyaa), they often go into freestyling 

battles with each other by writing [poetry] lines to each other. Some 

of these people online I see at offline events, like with the Nas with 

Notepads events, where I see some of the people online share their 

38 http://nubianq.com. 

39 http://jogsofapen.blogspot.com.


poetry with a very exclusive [crowd]. But at least it’s there for people 

who don’t see it online. 

Q5. Are Sudanese bloggers mostly anonymous or not? 

Do they feel safe to express themselves online? Are there 

advantages to anonymous blogging in an unfree country like 

Sudan? Are there disadvantages? 

It’s interesting because I would think political writers would go 

anonymously, and creative writers would not. But it’s actually the 

opposite; it’s creative writers who are anonymous. And you have 

political writers, like Maha Elsanosi whose blog is Mimzology; 40 you 

have Reem Shawkat whose blog is Wholeheartedly Sudaniya; 41 you 

have “Sudanese Thinker” who is out now (he had been anonymous 

for some time) whose name is Amir Ahmad Nasr. 42 You have 

someone like Yasir Dahawy … There’s a huge generational gap in 

terms of expression. We are a very oral society. People are talking 

about politics at every social event, but not a lot of people sit down 

and write their thoughts in a logical sequence and share their 

thoughts in printed form. 

There is a huge crackdown on printed media [by the State] and 

young people don’t feel that interested in print media, because those 

who read print media are not our generation. So the youth are trying 

to compensate for that gap [online]; and they are doing it bravely 

without having to do it anonymously. 

BLOGGING 

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Q6. What have some of the prominent bloggers achieved? 

Mimzology and Wholeheartedly Sudaniya won blogger awards 

consecutively in 2011 and 2012; and Amir Ahmad Nasr published 

a book. Bloggers are pretty supportive of each other and publicize 

each other’s work. They are finding ground to connect without having 

to ever meet. And they are forming networks online and offline. It’s 

difficult to generalize, but it seems like a very buzzing scene. 

Q7. Finally, how do you respond to those who say, “Why do I 

need a blog in the age of Facebook and Twitter?” 

A lot of people on Facebook and Twitter have random thoughts that 

they are constantly injecting to their timelines or statuses. The blog 

is an eloquent form of writing; you have to put your thoughts in a 

logical sequence. It’s also a documentation of your thoughts. Blogs 

can be archived; they can be used for research; and they can be 

shared with a wider audience [more] than a status update that stays 

on the timeline for 50 seconds or a minute. 

40 http://mimzology.blogspot.com. 

41 http://wholeheartedly-sudaniya.blogspot.com. 

42 http://www.amirahmadnasr.com.

24 


There is a huge audience that you can tap into on topics such 

as art, identity, contemporary politics and social history. This tech 

savvy generation is utilizing different platforms. So you don’t need 

a blog, unless you find that your thoughts need to be put in a blog. 

Otherwise you can thrive on Twitter, but I really think that the archiving 

of documented thoughts is the appeal of a blog.


Allows deep flushed-out thinking, reflection and debate 

Anonymous blogging 

To create a 

“counter-narrative” 

Why Blog? 

To create “alternative public spaces” 

BLOGGING 

1 

To centralize your presence online 

Why do you need a blog in the 

age of Twitter and Facebook? 

If you have read the interviews with blogger/author Amir Ahmad Nasr and 

cultural analyst Omnia Shawkat you should be convinced by now that 

blogging remains an important tool even in the age of social media. Below 

we have distilled their words of wisdom on why blogging still matters in the 

age of Facebook and Twitter. 

• Centralize your presence online in one place that is easily searchable 

and archivable. By using widgets you can display your Twitter, Facebook 

and other social media timelines on your website. Blogs also have more 

advanced searching and archiving functions, and hence are ideal for 

documenting and research. Facebook and Twitter pages are hard to search 

and therefore difficult to do research on or to retrieve older posts from. 

• Deep flushed-out thinking, reflection and debate, as opposed to 

brief status updates and comments. This can include creative writing, 

political analysis, photo documentary and/or video blogging. 

• Anonymous blogging can give you the freedom to express yourself 

and engage with others without fear, especially when addressing topics 

that are considered taboo by the authorities or society. 

• The creation of a “counter-narrative.” In countries where freedom 

of expression and association are under attack and where most of the 

media is State-controlled, a sizable blogosphere can challenge the 

dominance of State propaganda and create a counter-narrative based 

on the sharing of collective citizen grievances. 

• The creation of “alternative public spaces.” When freedom of 

assembly is limited, the blogosphere, just like social media platforms, 

offers possible spaces of assembly and discussion. Those spaces, 

however, are not always safe, since most governments are conducting 

heavy surveillance on social media platforms nowadays!

26 


Choosing a blog platform: 

Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr 

For simplicity, the most popular (and free) blog platforms are discussed and 

compared below to help you decide what would work best for you. Opening 

a blog is as easy as opening an email account; the hard part is creating 

the content and keeping the blog active. The blogs discussed below are 

the most user-friendly. These blogs can be used without any advanced 

programming skills as they have many ready to use themes/templates 

(unless you are seeking advanced customization in the case of Wordpress 

and Tumblr). 43 

1. Blogger (also BlogSpot) 44 

Blogger is the easiest and fastest way to start your first blog. It has a user 

friendly interface and has a setup wizard that allows you to be up and running 

quickly. Blogger is owned by Google and is easily integrated with Google 

analytics to give you professional statistics on how your blog is doing. 

Who is this for? Beginners and casual bloggers should consider starting 

with Blogger. Later, if the need arises, they can move on to another platform. 

Its limited themes and design styles make Blogger seem less professional. 

2. Wordpress 45 

Wordpress is an extremely flexible and powerful blogging platform that 

can be used as a content management system for websites. There are 

thousands of themes and plugins that can make your blog look great 

and have many features. With all these choices and power comes some 

complexity in its setup and configuration. But once up, it is easy to use and 

maintain. 

Who is this for? This is the way to go for professional bloggers, artists, 

independent media outlets, civil society groups, including NGOs, and also 

the private sector. 

43 This is a useful resource with recommendations on how to set up a blog and how 

to write a blog: http://www.theminimalists.com/how-to-set-up-a-wordpressblog/ 

and http://www.theminimalists.com/blog/#recommendations. 

44 http://www.blogger.com. 

45 http://wordpress.com.


3. Tumblr 46 

Tumblr is a form of micro-blogging that focuses less on writing and more 

on sharing pictures, videos and visual art content. It is easy to publish on, 

even through SMS and email. It also has many great looking and fun to view 

themes; and it works well on mobiles and tablets. 

Who is this for? Tumblr is great for photographers, artists, video bloggers, 

and as a commentary tool on other websites’ content through sharing links 

and embedding their content. But due to its highly visual nature, Tumblr is 

recommended for non-writers and mainly for sharing pictures and videos 

with limited text. 

BLOGGING 

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Hosted vs. self-hosted blogs 

Obtaining paid hosting services can be difficult and costly, specifically in 

countries impacted by US financial sanctions (such as Iran, Sudan, Syria, 

Cuba, and North Korea). However, free options for blogging are abundant. 

Even though the free options would not include a personalized domain 

name (www.yourname.com), hosted URLs are available at no charge 

(yourname.wordpress.com). Below is a breakdown of how to choose the 

right hosted solution for your blog. 

Hosted blogs are 100 percent free, easy to set up blogs that are hosted 

on the platform’s server (e.g. on Blogger, Wordpress.org or Tumblr servers). 

This reduces the complexity of setting up a blog, and makes the process 

similar to setting up a Facebook page or opening an email account. 

Who is this for? Individuals and/or institutions and those who do not feel 

like plunging into web development should start with a hosted platform. 

Besides the ease of use, it also welcomes you into a community that the 

platform provides. 

Companies, NGOs, professional writers and artists might need the power to 

design a unique tailored blog/site. For this a non-hosted or self-hosted 

option is the way to go. 

46 https://www.tumblr.com.

28 


Self-hosted means you get your own hosting or a third-party paid site. 

Good examples of hosting sites include bluehost.com and hostgator.com. 

This costs around USD 4-5 per month, and provides your own unique 

domain name (URL), for example www.sawtna.net. Independent hosting 

accounts give you total control and freedom to design and manage your 

blog as well as access to a customized email (e.g., yourname@yourname. 

com). They also allow you to easily transform your blog into a website. With 

that power comes added complexity and the need to have basic HTML and 

web-design skills. Note that it is possible to buy a domain name and then 

map it to your platform-hosted blog.

CHAPTER 2 

Twitter 

TWITTER 

2

30 


CHAPTER 2 

Twitter 

This chapter includes an introduction to the 

micro-blogging social media platform Twitter. The 

uses of Twitter and the extent of its global reach 

are discussed, as well as how to link Twitter to 

other tools, such as websites/blogs and phones/ 

smartphones. Twitter terminologies and signs are 

also explained. 

The highlight of this chapter is an interactive presentation with detailed 

steps on how to organize a successful social media advocacy campaign. 

This includes an explanation of social media analytical tools or social 

media metrics and how they can be used to measure the impact of digital 

campaigns. 

Turning to practical uses, we have an interview with renowned Sudanese 

cartoonist Khalid Albaih, who talks about how his passion for political 

cartoons blossomed and the different social media tools he uses to 

disseminate his artwork globally. 

Two case studies are presented, from Iran and Sudan. We look at the Iranian 

“Green Revolution” and how different stakeholders (opposition parties, 

citizens, and international media) used social media to share information 

and coordinate and mobilize protests, regardless of a massive government 

clampdown on independent media outlets during the 2009 Iranian elections. 

Additionally, the debate about “Twitter revolutions” is briefly discussed. 

From Sudan, the campaign launched by civil society and youth movements 

to free the prominent Nuba Mountains female detainee Jalila Khamis is 

discussed in depth. We unravel the tools the Sudanese civil society used 

to give visibility to Jalila’s unjust detention and the proceedings of her trial. 

From both the Iran and Sudan case studies we extract the lessons learned 

– what worked and what did not work. 

We wrap up by discussing a few useful social media applications that can 

be used to enhance your experience when using Facebook, YouTube, 

Instagram, Flickr, Google+ and others. They include Storify, Speak to Tweet, 

Flipboard, and BufferApp, among others.


A brief introduction to Twitter 

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows a maximum of 140 characters 

to be posted. This can include links to articles, images and videos. 

Twitter was initially designed to ask a very simple question, “What are you 

doing?” to provide updates between friends. This is still the case, but like 

any digital tool, users are expanding the uses of Twitter to new dimensions 

different from the original purposes for which Twitter was designed. 

In most cases Twitter profiles are public and conversations are also public 

for all to see, unless you send messages to someone’s inbox as a direct 

message. In this case that person must follow you too. 

Twitter has more than 300 million active users globally and almost 1 billion 

registered users. If strategically used, it can help you receive very fast 

updates from your community of interest. (See the infographic on the next 

page for more Twitter statistics. 47 ) 

TWITTER 

2 

Why use Twitter? 

• To spread messages fast: for public awareness campaigns and 

information-sharing. 

• To communicate with large audiences. 

• To follow or cover events in “real-time.” 

• To crowdsource for ideas or information. 48 

• To fundraise for campaigns. 

• To engage with your followers and non-followers. 

47 https://about.twitter.com/company. 

48 Crowdsourcing is defined as using the power of the internet to reach out to 

and/or mobilize citizens, in other words using the power of the “crowd” to get 

information that is often shared for free. On Twitter you can “crowdsource” by 

asking your followers a question on a certain topic and showing them how and 

where they can provide their inputs. For more on crowdsourcing see chapters 3 

and 4 of this guide.

32 


How to gain followers on Twitter 

Twitter allows people to follow you based on their interests and the content 

of your tweets. Twitter has evolved into a community of people with specific 

interests. 

On Twitter you can follow people you do not know. You can even follow 

celebrities (artists, writers, politicians, actors). 

It is a powerful ICT tool, but it requires patience to build a community of 

followers. To gain followers you have to gain the trust of your “community of 

interest” by doing the following: 

1. Being authentic. 

2. Being accurate. 

3. Posting frequently. 

Twitter in numbers (2015) 


Identifying influencers and new followers on 

Twitter 

Find and follow people whose Tweets interest you from the “Discover” tab on 

your phone Twitter application. Browse tailored recommendations on “who 

to follow” suggestions, find friends using your address book, or browse 

categories of popular accounts. Based on your interests and the people 

you follow, Twitter will also send you weekly suggestions of who to follow. 

Linking Twitter to other digital tools 

Twitter works best when linked to other digital tools. It should not be used in 

an isolated manner for advocacy campaigns. Its real power is in combining 

it with other social media channels, such as YouTube, your campaign or 

institutional Facebook page, blog and/or website and even your mobile 

phones! 

Linking Twitter to your website or blog 

Want to link from your website to your Twitter account? 

• Go to your Twitter account; then 

• Go to “settings;” then 

• Go to “widgets” and click on the button “create new.” 

• You will be taken to a page that says, “create a user widget.” 

• Here you are prompted to choose a timeline that is one of the following: 

your user timeline; tweets you have favored; specific lists you have 

created; or specific search based on a hashtag or topic. The most 

commonly used is the timeline, which will show all tweets you tweeted, 

retweeted and responded to. 

• When you make your choice press “create widget.” 

• An HTML code will appear that you will have to copy and paste in the 

appropriate location of your website’s source code. 

TWITTER 

2

34 

Strategic Use of New Media for Peaceful Social Change


Linking Twitter to your phone 

For smartphones 

Given Twitter’s importance in capturing breaking news and events in realtime, 

it’s no surprise that up to 80 percent of Twitter users tweet from their 

mobile phones. 

To link Twitter to your smartphone simply download the Twitter application. 

For older generation cell phones 

To activate sending tweets via text messaging using an old generation cell 

phone (i.e., not a smartphone): 49 

• Go to your Twitter account (from your computer); 

• Go to “settings” and then “mobile;” 

• Indicate your “country” from the drop down menu; 

• Fill in your phone number; 

• Choose your telephone provider; and 

• Press the button “activate phone.” 

TWITTER 

2 

49 https://support.twitter.com/articles/14226-how-to-find-your-twitter-short-codeor-long-code.

36 


If you are inside Sudan, start tweeting from your phone by sending texts to 

the short code 40404 (local texting fees will apply). This allows you to send 

and receive tweets. 

Note: at the time of writing this, the texting to Twitter service in Sudan, from 

old generation cell phones, had been discontinued by the local provider. 

Another option is to use long code, which allows only one-way tweeting, 

meaning that you cannot receive tweets. International tweeting rates may 

apply. The long codes are as follows: 

UK: +447624800379. 

Germany: +491724403473. 

Finland: +3584573950042.


Twitter terms and signs 

Twitter terms 

Tweet: A message of up to 140 

characters. 

Twitter feed: News feed of Twitter 

messages by one user. 

Tweep: A Twitter user. 

Following: The friends, groups, 

organizations, campaigns, etc., 

that you are following and receiving 

tweets from. 

Followers: “Fans” or friends who are 

following your tweets. 

Hashtags: Words prefixed by # that 

are similar to URL links; they help 

users interested in specific topics 

or keywords to find relevant tweets. 

They are searchable and useful for 

archiving conversations and as an 

organizational tool. 

Newsfeed: Collection of new 

messages. 

Twitterverse: The realm of tweets 

and Twitterers. 

Popular Twitter signs 

@: Use this when addressing or 

replying to another Twitter user. Note 

that your conversation will be public 

or you will be introducing that person 

to others in your network. 

d: Signifies a direct private response. 

Others will not see this. 

#: This is a symbol for the hashtag 

that precedes a phrase or word as 

discussed under “Twitter terms.” 

RT: Stands for “retweet.” Comes 

before any tweet that you want to 

“retweet.” 

H/T: Hat tip, used for crediting 

another Twitterer for a thought or 

reference. 

#FF: The abbreviation for Follow 

Friday, an indication that you are 

recommending people to follow. 

#PT: Stands for “previous tweet” and 

indicates that you are writing a few 

related tweets. 

TWITTER 

2 

For more Twitter terminology visit Twittonary, an online Twitter dictionary that 

explains Twitter-related words: http://www.twittonary.com

38 


How to organize a social media 

campaign 

In this section we take you through a step-by-step interactive presentation 

on how to organize a successful social media advocacy campaign. 

Below are the steps that we recommend you follow when you are planning 

a social media advocacy campaign: 

• Identify your objectives clearly so that they are SMART (specific, 

measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound). 

• Collect or produce content to inform and educate others about your 

topic. This may require research to produce a report or producing a short 

compelling video or a collection of videos. Research all content and use 

it during the campaign as educational materials. 

• Prepare graphics such as a common profile or avatar that you want 

people to upload to spread the message. 

• Use a wide range of new-media tools and social media platforms 

to reach diverse audiences. 

To create a social media campaign through an online interactive 

presentation, follow the steps here: 50 

Prezi. Sawtna Digital. Steps for Preparing a New-media Advocacy 

Campaign. 

50 Prezi. Sawtna Digital. Steps for Preparing a New-media Advocacy Campaign. 

July 5, 2014.


• On Twitter create a hashtag that is catchy and short. Creating 

two hashtags in Arabic and English is important to widen the scope of 

the audience you are reaching. The Arabic hashtag will ensure that a 

Sudanese audience is part of the conversation and the English hashtag 

will inform an international audience, and especially the international 

media. 

• Have a media strategy. (1) Prepare Twitter handles for media outlets 

and organizations you want to target during the campaign (e.g., @NYT, 

@AJStream, @BBCArabic, @BBCWorld, @BBCAfrica, @alhurranews, @ 

France24_Ar, @France24_en, @AlArabiya). (2) Have designated media 

spokespersons ready to address questions from journalists and to give 

media interviews upon request. 

• Have a team that will take shifts to tweet, engage with the public and 

respond to media requests. 

• Spread the word before you launch! Tweet heavily to bring attention 

to your campaign a few days beforehand. Create an announcement on 

your website or blog, with the essential information (what, why, where, 

when and how people can act), and circulate that link on multiple social 

media platforms. 

• Link your online action with on-the-ground activities and relevant 

partners. Make sure that you capitalize on any community outreach 

and/or organized events on the ground linked to the campaign’s theme, 

by spreading the campaign’s messages via offline activities, forums, 

flyers or newsletters, and partnering up with relevant groups. 

• Measure and evaluate impact. If you defined your objectives clearly, 

measuring impact will be easier. It is important to measure impact and 

evaluate the campaign in order to learn from successes and failures 

and improve future Twitter campaigns. Impact can be the short-term 

immediate outputs or the long-term outcomes. Some general indicators 

or short-term outputs could be: (1) Were you able to execute the 

campaign as planned? (2) Did you get any media requests, interviews 

and/or coverage? (3) Did the Twitter campaign generate a vibrant 

discussion? (4) How often was the designated hashtag tweeted and 

retweeted? 

TWITTER 

2

40 


Measuring impact: social media 

analytics and real-time tracking of 

online campaigns 

Private sector enterprises, governments and non-profits are starting to 

realize that their interactions on social media platforms generate a lot of 

useful data. This data can tell volumes about supporters, clients, investors 

and constituents, but only if it is centralized, organized and visualized to 

inform decision-making. There are many easy ways to use social media 

analytical tools that help with exactly that. Generally speaking, the social 

media metrics that can help us measure the impact of our social media 

strategies include: 51 

• Reach: number of followers and/or fans. 

• Engagement: number of mentions, likes, shares, tweets and retweets. 

• Referral traffic from website: amount of traffic coming to your website 

from social media and/or the top URL addresses bringing traffic into the 

website. 

• Monthly number of unique visitors and/or reads to your website 

and the comments generated are also important website metrics. 

• Share of voice: the percentage of mentions within a certain sector or 

profession. 

• Competitive score: where your competitors stand in terms of reach, 

engagement and share of voice. 

A word of caution: social media metrics can generate a lot of data/ 

information that may not be useful to you. Social media analytics or metrics 

that are useful to you are those that are directly related to your end goals 

and objectives. Hence, feel free to discard metrics that are not useful. Also 

note that some metrics may be worth your attention more than others. For 

example, the high number of fans on your Facebook or Twitter pages may 

be less important than the actual number of fans who engage with you to 

help you spread your message by tweeting and sharing, and who respond 

to you through concrete action. 52 

51 Visual.ly. 5 Social Media Metrics That Won’t Slow You Down. June 25, 2013. 

52 GoodData. Marketing Metrics Overload: What Really Matters. May 6, 2013.


Twitter’s analytical tool 

Twitter has its very own analytical tool. To use it go to: 

• The toolbar at the top with your Twitter profile picture; then 

• Scroll down to “Analytics.” 

Through Twitter’s analytical tool you will get a detailed analysis of your Twitter 

account’s activity for the past 28 days that will include: 

• Tweets: Your total number of tweets in the last 28 days. 

• Tweet impressions: The total impressions or people reached (through 

tweets, retweets or mentions), including the percentage increase or 

decrease in impressions. 

• Profile visits: The total number of visitors to your profile, in addition to 

the percentage increase or decrease in profile visits. 

• Mentions: The number of times you received mentions. 

• Followers: Your total number of followers with an indication of how 

much that number increased or decreased. 

• Top tweet: The tweet that received the highest number of impressions 

and hence reached the highest number of people. 

• Top follower: Your most influential new follower; influence here is 

measured in terms of the number of his or her followers. 

TWITTER 

2

42 


Additional social media analytical tools 

Below are five social media analytic tools and a detailed discussion of what 

they offer. 

1. Topsy. 53 Topsy is a social media analytics tool that provides access to 

every tweet generated on Twitter, and also indexes social networks including 

Facebook and Google+. Topsy has created a complete searchable archive 

of the more than 300 billion tweets sent over Twitter since it was set up, and 

added other analytics tools to make itself useful to businesses – which can 

buy advanced services. Topsy also provides metrics for any term mentioned 

on Twitter via its free analytics service at analytics.topsy.com, where you can 

compare up to three terms for content in the past hour, day, week or month. 

2. TweetReach 54 and Keyhole 55 are two tools that help evaluate in great 

detail the impact of certain hashtags on Twitter, or the impact of a campaign 

or topic being discussed, by measuring: (1) the number of posts or tweets 

under a specific hashtag; (2) the number of users of a certain hashtag; (3) the 

reach or number of unique followers a user has, and hence how influential 

each user is; and (4) the impressions: the number of times a user posts. 

Keyhole works with Twitter, Instagram and Facebook; TweetReach works 

exclusively with Twitter. Both tools are free of charge and the analytics are 

tracked for 8 days at a time. They include visual data such as graphs, pie 

charts and histograms. However, to have more historic analytics dating back 

beyond 8 days, users have to upgrade to a pro-account that charges fees. 

Analytics by both TweetReach 56 and Keyhole 57 using the hashtag 

#SudanRevolts are illustrated in the screenshots below: 

53 http://topsy.com. 

54 http://tweetreach.com. 

55 http://keyhole.co. 

56 http://tweetreach.com/reports/9110423?v=2. 

57 http://keyhole.co/realtime/1E5x4w/SudanRevolts.


3. Klout 58 is a social media analytical tool that works with multiple social 

media platforms and ranks users’ internet influence based on the number 

of followers they have and how often posts are liked and retweeted. Klout 

defines “influence” in social media as “‘the ability to drive action’. When you 

share something on social media or in real life and people respond, that’s 

influence. The more influential you are, the higher your Klout Score.” The 

Klout Score ranges from 1 to 100 and is not static (this tool is free). 

4. ThinkUp 59 was used by the Obama administration in its beta 

(development) phase and is a social media analytics tool for Twitter, 

Facebook and Instagram that is open source and was launched in early 

2014. 60 It provides a group of dashboards and notification tools that tell 

you which tweets were your most popular, who your biggest fans are, and 

whether your posts tend to do better in the morning or in the afternoon, 

among other things. It also provides a searchable archive of your tweets 

and a handy way to reference responses to questions you have asked. It is 

not free, but it is affordable; fees range from basic membership to executive 

membership for companies. 

5. Crowdbooster 61 evaluates impact metrics and identifies users to follow. 

This gives in-depth analysis of public information or marketing campaigns 

as well as tips on how to improve outreach. This service is not free, but there 

is a 30-day trial period. 

TWITTER 

2 

58 http://klout.com/corp/how-it-works. 

59 https://www.thinkup.com/join. 

60 Wired Magazine. Klint Finley. Out in the Open: You too Can Use Obama’s Secret 

Social Media Weapon. October 14, 2013. 

61 http://crowdbooster.com.

44 


Interview with Sudanese cartoonist 

Khalid Albaih 

Khalid Albaih is best known for his political satire cartoons (dubbed 

Khartoons) that are one of the freshest and most talented artistic 

commentaries on Sudanese and Middle Eastern politics. Most are 

circulated on the internet and social media platforms. Khalid shot 

to prominence in 2011 at the height of the revolutions in the Arab 

world often referred to as the “Arab Spring.” His political cartoons 

resonated with protesters in Tahrir Square, predicted the evolution of 

the protest movement in the region and thoroughly followed events in 

the region, including in his native Sudan. To reach a global audience 

Khalid mainly used social media platforms such as Facebook, 

Twitter, 62 Tumblr, Flickr and Instagram. In this interview he talks to us 

about his journey and the power of social media in enabling artists 

with a social justice message. 

You can see Khalid Albaih’s cartoons on: 

● Facebook. 63 

● Flickr. 64 

● Instagram. 65 

● Tumblr. 66 

62 https://twitter.com/khalidalbaih. 

63 https://www.facebook.com/KhalidAlbaih. 

64 http://www.flickr.com/photos/khalidalbaih. 

65 http://instagram.com/khalidalbaih. 

66 http://khartoon.tumblr.com.


Q1. How did your passion for cartoons start? And how did it 

evolve to political cartoons? 

I was into art. I liked drawing ever since I was a kid. I remember 

tracing newspapers. And I was always into comics, and was reading 

comic books in Sudan when I first started to read in Arabic and 

English. There were all these comic books translated in Lebanon. I 

loved that, and I always wanted to be an artist. 

When we had to leave Sudan and come to Doha, my father used 

to buy two Egyptian cartoon-based magazines. One of them was 

Sabah El Kheir 67 and the other Rose al Youssef; 68 they are both very 

well-known Egyptian magazines. I loved cartoons. My dad would 

spend hours reading the magazine, and I couldn’t wait for him to 

finish it so I could take it and copy all the cartoons. 

Of course, like all the Sudanese “refugees” or diaspora, we all come 

from political backgrounds, with educated parents. My father was 

a diplomat, and when the revolution happened [in 1985], he had to 

leave like a lot of people, including my uncle who was a president 

at some point. So we come from a very political family. Growing up 

I heard a lot about Communists and Islamists; and al ingaz and Al 

Bashir. 

I loved cartoons, and how they put everything in a nutshell, with 

different styles, and they look amazing. Even if you are not into politics, 

it’s the first thing that you turn to see. If you read a daily newspaper 

you see the cartoon, and it’s probably relative to what society is 

going through at that time. I love the idea of it because most of my 

friends and the people I knew from my generation never really liked 

politics. Not that they didn’t like it, but they were told by their parents 

to keep away from it. Because, you know, “it’s very dangerous to be 

involved in politics, and it will stand in the way of your future to be an 

engineer or a doctor.” As you have to be of course! 

So [cartoons] was always the way to introduce the people around 

me to politics in a very fun and short way. 

People don’t read anymore; they went from reading books in my 

father’s generation to reading magazines, and now to just reading 

posts on Facebook and one-liners on Twitter. Now it’s even worse, 

they just want to see images on Instagram. 

The first political cartoon I did was during the student union elections 

in my university. I was at the meeting and every speaker was saying 

what the one before him said; it was the same thing ... they were all 

lying basically. So I used it for a cartoon and everyone loved it. And 

it went on from there. 

TWITTER 

2 

67 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/365284219745980492. 

68 http://www.rosa-magazine.com.

46 


I wanted to become a professional cartoonist/artist, but of course 

being from the region you had to be an engineer or a doctor. So 

I studied interior design engineering because it had the word 

engineering in it. 

I came here [to Qatar], and started applying to newspapers. I 

had a job, but really wanted my cartoons to be published. In the 

cartoonists’ world, for your cartoons to be published, you have to 

be published, which doesn’t even make sense. I started applying 

everywhere, but nobody wanted my cartoons because, first of all, I 

didn’t have the name to put out such political stuff. 

Secondly, my cartoons looked different. And all the editors I was 

talking to were really old and had no connection to the youth. They 

had no idea what a computer was and were always sitting on huge 

desks with not one computer in sight, and big piles of paper. 

That was around the time the Arab Spring started and I was very 

upset. Bouazizi burned himself and I started a Facebook page. It 

was the same reaction we had all over the Arab world, and we had 

no choice but to be online, because it was the only place to speak 

freely and be understood by people your age from different regions. I 

started a Facebook page (to put my work on it), and with the help of 

my colleagues, word started getting around. When the Arab Spring 

happened, I started doing work about Tunisia, Egypt and then Libya 

– and it just spread. 

A lot of activists and civil rights movements used my work. And 

because it is free online, under a creative commons license, it really 

got a lot of views and got used in a lot spaces. 

Q2. Tell us about the moment you realized your cartoons have 

a regional or global audience beyond your native Sudan. 

There were a couple of moments. The first one is when I was 

contacted by a journalist in Brazil asking me if they could use my 

work because they saw it online. To me that was amazing. The 

biggest moment was when one of my friends stenciled my cartoon in 

Lebanon. Then, a day after, someone stenciled my cartoon in Tahrir 

Square, during the Egyptian revolution, three days before Mubarak 

stepped down. I remember doing the cartoon on Friday morning 

and by Friday night it had a lot of views and was shared widely – it 

went viral. When I got an image of my cartoon being used in Tahrir 

Square, I felt like I was part of the revolution. 

During that time, there was a lot of unity among the youth and 

everybody was cheering; the change has finally arrived. There were 

no borders as we were all brothers and all supporting each other. I 

thought it was amazing that I was part of that time and part of that 

narrative.


It was a cartoon called “Musir” 69 and it had Mubarak’s face with the 

word “musir” written next to it. “Musir” in Arabic is written with the 

same letters that are used for “Masr,” which is the Arabic name for 

Egypt, but with different vowel marks. It translates to “determined” or 

“insisting.” This was three days before Mubarak stepped down, so it 

implied that he was insisting to stay. 

Q3. Your cartoons and your message would not have reached 

a global audience if not for your strategic use of ICTs. Can you 

tell us how you specifically used social media to expand your 

reach as an artist and cartoonist? 

When I first started posting my cartoons I posted them on Hi5 ... it 

was the introduction to social networking for us. After that Facebook 

started getting popular, and I was already on Facebook. Before my 

official page 70 I started posting on my personal page, 71 and people 

liked them. At the beginning of the Arab Spring I was interested 

in Twitter because I read a lot of news and “Twitter feeds” were 

mentioned a lot since Tunisians were using Twitter a lot. Like most 

people I had an account but I wasn’t using it. Then I starting using 

my Twitter 72 account and little by little I started to like it. 

TWITTER 

2 

The reason I specifically liked Twitter among all the social media tools 

was the one-to-one dialogue. It didn’t matter who the person was, 

you could communicate with them personally – you could speak 

to the journalists, you could speak to the newspapers, you could 

speak to the magazines, you could speak to whoever is running 

that account. In general that is what marketing 2.0 is all about, the 

emotional one-to-one connection. That is where I get a lot of advice 

on my cartoons. People write comments and I always read the 

comments and reply back. You see the dialogue among people as 

well. Some people with, some people against, as well as those who 

say it will never work out. I am always excited to see the comments. 

I then started to use Tumblr. 73 I tried to follow the trends and go to 

where the people are, because this is what you have to do now 

[in order to make it]. However it is extremely hard to be exclusively 

online, because you are at the mercy of the scroll of the thumb, 

because people usually view these things on their phones. There 

is a lot of junk on the internet, but there is also a lot of amazing 

things, so I try to make my cartoons as visually pleasing as possible. 

I know that I have five seconds to grab that person’s attention and 

tell them about the message that I want to give. I try to make the 

69 Flickr. Khalid Albaih. Museer Graph. February 2, 2011. 

70 https://www.facebook.com/KhalidAlbaih. 

71 https://www.facebook.com/albaih. 

72 https://twitter.com/khalidalbaih. 

73 http://khartoon.tumblr.com.

48 


cartoons simple and I try to get the [complete] message through in 

five seconds. 

Q4. It seems that you’re saying that there is not one social 

media tool that works best, and that a combination is the best 

way to reach a diverse group or audience. 

Exactly. Look at the Chinese now. They are using WeChat 74 instead 

of WhatsApp, 75 and now they are switching to Kik. 76 It’s all about 

these new things that are happening, and it’s all about what’s in 

fashion now – what are most people using? What are the young 

people using? What are the professional people using? 

Q5. What advice would you give someone to convince them 

to try Twitter, for example? 

It took people about five years to get used to Facebook and 

understand what it is. As I said it’s all about what’s in fashion right 

now. For the average person there is no fun in using Twitter. For 

journalists and activists I would suggest to them opening a Twitter 

account because that is where all the other activists and journalists 

are. This is where you become a citizen journalist, and this is where 

your views are seen. You’re trying to reflect what is going on in your 

country and this is the best way to do it right now. If you are an artist 

or an activist and you want to get your work out there, this is the 

best route. 

Q6. What about Tumblr? A lot of people blog but fewer people 

are familiar with Tumblr because it is something, as you said, 

fashionable with the artistic community. 

I personally love Tumblr. If I am not in the mood for politics, Tumblr is 

more fun for me because it is very creative. There are a lot of artists 

on Tumblr and there is an award now for artists on it. 

It’s a blogging platform, mostly used by visual artists. It is hands 

down the easiest way to make a blog. You just register and you can 

have a blog in your name, and you can reblog from anywhere. You 

get to follow a lot of people and they follow you back, and there are 

a lot of creative people on it. 

74 http://www.wechat.com/en. 

75 http://www.whatsapp.com. 

76 http://kik.com.


interest graph 

a community based 

on interests 

social graph 

a community based on 

personal relationships 

allows 

one-way 

following 

based on 

two-way 

friending 

private 

public 

by default 

Why do I need Twitter if I have Facebook? 

The interest graph vs. the social graph 

Many of you might be thinking, “Why should I bother with Twitter when I 

have Facebook?” Here we will tell you why, and point out the differences 

between Twitter and Facebook. 

Although Facebook in the last few years has copied some features from 

Twitter, such as allowing the use of hashtags and introducing a “follow” 

button, where you can follow those who are not your “friends,” Twitter still 

remains fundamentally different from Facebook. 

The main difference is that Twitter is about building a “community of interest” 

(what is referred to as the interest graph), as opposed to maintaining contact 

with an existing community of friends, family and acquaintances (the social 

graph or a detailed map of personal relationships). 77 

TWITTER 

2 

Digging deeper, Twitter’s interest graph: 78 

• Allows one-way following as opposed to two-way friending. You can 

follow and interact with anyone, be it a journalist, a politician or a celebrity. 

• Builds a network around shared interests and not personal 

relationships. You can have many areas of interest. 

• Is public by default not automatically private. Tweets are public 

unless they are sent to someone’s inbox, in which case that person has 

to follow you back. 

• Is about what you want to be and not what you were. 

This makes Twitter ideal for advocacy because it is possible to get the 

attention of international journalists, TV stations and global communities who 

care about the same issues, as long as credible content and information are 

communicated to get their attention and build their trust. 

77 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_graph. 

78 http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/16/why-twitter-is-massively-undervaluedcompared-to-facebook.

50 


A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir 

Hossein Mousavi during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. 

CASE STUDY 2: IRAN 

Citizen journalism during Iran’s 

“Green Revolution” 

If there was one event that forecasted the Arab Spring, then it must 

have been Iran’s “Green Revolution” in 2009. This case study looks at 

the Iranian “Green Revolution” and the use of Twitter, Facebook and 

YouTube to share a national struggle (within a very closed country) with 

an international audience. We will analyze how different digital tools 

were used by the political opposition and by Iranian citizens; then we 

delve into the debate surrounding “Twitter revolutions.” 

It is noteworthy to mention that Iranians had been defying their regime 

for many years before this event. As of 2008, the Iranian blogosphere 

was the fourth largest blogosphere in the world with almost 60,000 

regularly updated blogs. The Iranian blogosphere included the presence 

of both the conservative and the more liberal and secular political 

activists, who were using blogging as a way to counter the extremely


repressed local media and the limited freedom of speech. 79 The Iranian 

“Green Revolution” was hence mostly characterized by: 80 

● A rigged national election that generated public outrage. 

● The absence of international media who were kicked out by the 

regime before the riots. 

● Massive “marches” or protests in all of Iran’s main cities. The first three 

or four protests were peaceful and very symbolic with supporters of 

opposition leader Mousavi wearing green. Some estimates of the 

June 16, 2009 demonstration in Tehran say that seven million people 

showed up (almost half of Tehran’s population). 

● To stop the spread of protests the government arrested the 

opposition and targeted civilians. 

● Regardless of all, the world and international media outlets got 

detailed and up-to-date footage covering the protests and the 

violence that followed. 

Social media tools were used for different purposes by the Iranian 

opposition parties and by Iranian citizens. 

● Opposition leaders used both Facebook and Twitter in a centralized 

fashion as an organizing tool, to announce the time and location 

of protests and coordinate the movements of their supporters. But 

word of mouth and mobile SMS were also used by supporters to 

spread the word. Mousavi had more than 65,000 supporters in his 

Facebook group and every message reached this army of people 

directly. Supporters were also asked to pass the message to others, 

implying that the political leaders deliberately made use of their 

supporters’ online and offline personal networks. 

● Citizens used mostly their mobile phones to take pictures that were 

then transmitted to the world via YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. 

(See some images here: http://bo.st/fdUMm. 81 ) Iranians used Twitter 

as an important broadcast (rather than organizing) tool to report 

events, slogans, and minute-by-minute protest movements – that 

covered events in real-time. In this way, the strategic use of 

digital tools by Iranian citizens turned a local struggle into a national 

and international one. 

● The international media used the same videos provided by citizens 

in their coverage of Iran. A journalist from the BBC (the network was 

banned from Iran) commented on the inflow of information coming 

TWITTER 

2 

79 Bruce Etling and John Kelly. Mapping Iran’s Online Public: Politics and Culture 

in the Persian Blogosphere. Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard 

University. April 2008. PP. 2 and 5. 

80 Sudan Tribune. Dalia Haj-Omar. What can Sudan learn from Iran’s Green Revolution? 

June 29, 2009. 

81 http://bo.st/fdUMm.

52 


● from Iranian citizens by saying, “the days when regimes can control 

the flow of information are over.” 

Another lesson to take away from the Iranian experience is that it is 

usually the use of several digital tools and not the reliance on one or two 

tools that works best to get the word out. 

The debate around “Twitter revolutions:” Is digital 

activism enough to make revolutions happen? 

After the Iranian “Green Revolution” of June 2009, the term “Twitter 

revolution” was coined to describe what happened in Iran. 82 While the 

inventors of Twitter might have been happy for the positive press they 

got for enabling and empowering this national protest that captured 

the world’s imagination (because it initially lacked violence and was 

happening in one of the most repressive countries), social movement 

theorists and internet sociologists were quick to point out that social 

media are just tools and that calling them catalysts of a revolution was 

far fetched, ignoring and discrediting the courage of citizens who risked 

their lives, as well as the social networks and organizing that existed 

long before these digital tools came into being. 83 

Political scientists analyzing the role of technology in “political activism, 

movement activism or issue activism” often remind us that digital 

activism is “primarily activism,” where a group of people are working 

together for a common goal, and that technology does not and will not 

answer for us the traditional questions, of: 

● How do we recruit? 

● How do we coordinate and organize actions? 

● What is our main objective? 

● How will we reach that objective? 

● Who are our opposition/enemy and how will we confront them? 

Digital tools have the potential to make the process of political advocacy 

more participatory. It is therefore how we use these tools and not the 

tools themselves that determine success or failure. The reality is that 

digital tools have been revolutionized by activists who used them 

creatively to serve the social change agenda. Social change was not 

the original intention of the inventors of either Facebook or Twitter. 

So in this sense it is activism that has empowered or “enabled” the 

technology and not vice versa. 

82 Zero Anthropology. Maximilian Forte. America’s Iranian Twitter Revolution. June 

17, 2009. 

83 Slate. Jack Shafer. Doubting Twitter: Let’s not get carried away about its role in 

Iran’s demonstrations. June 17, 2009.


CASE STUDY 3: SUDAN 

Revisiting the offline and digital 

campaign for Nuba Mountains 

detainee Jalila Khamis 

Between mid-March 2012 and January 2013, Jalila Khamis (a teacher 

and mother of five) was Sudan’s most prominent female political 

detainee from the Nuba Mountains. She was kidnapped by Sudanese 

national security agents from her house in the early hours of March 

16, 2012 in her nightgown and imprisoned for nine months without 

charge. 84 

Jalila’s “crime” was that she was providing shelter in her home and 

seeking aid for a large number of internally displaced persons (and 

family members) fleeing the newly erupted conflict in the Nuba 

Mountains. She was also speaking out about the horrors and shelling 

sustained by the civilian population of the Nuba Mountains to Sudanese 

civil society and the diplomatic community in Khartoum. This included a 

video testimony recorded by Nagla’a Sid Ahmad, Sudan’s most prolific 

video blogger at the time. 85 

During the course of the following months, Jalila’s lawyers struggled to 

gain proper access to the details of her case. 86 There was unconfirmed 

news that Jalila was facing possible charges that included “undermining 

the constitution,” “spreading false information,” “inciting hatred” and 

“spying” for foreign entities. These charges, if confirmed, could carry the 

death penalty. Jalila was told verbally of these charges by the National 

Security and Intelligence Services (NISS), and that her video testimony 

on YouTube was used as the main evidence against her. 

Jalila’s lawyers were resistant to demands by Sudanese civil society 

and youth movements to launch more aggressive advocacy and/or 

media campaigns demanding that Jalila be charged immediately and 

receive a fair and transparent trial or be released. Her lawyers were 

under the impression that media exposure and campaigning would 

harm her case. 

Regardless of this, Sudanese women activists and youth movements 

refused to let Jalila’s case disappear into oblivion. They kept blogging 

about Jalila and spoke to the international media and international 

TWITTER 

2 

84 Girifna. Nuba Mountains Female Activist Arrested. March 18, 2012. 

85 YouTube. Girifna TV. Jalila Khamis and the Nuba people. November 1, 2012. 

86 Girifna. Trial of Rights Activist Jalila Khamis Shrouded in Secrecy. August 24, 

2012.

54 


human rights organizations to ensure that her case got coverage. They 

also kept in close contact with her family. 87 

The turning point came in November 2012, when women’s rights 

activists and the Girifna movement coordinated a silent protest (in front 

of Omdurman women’s prison) with an online campaign. The social 

media campaign was synchronized on Twitter and Facebook, with the 

English and Arabic hashtags #Jalila8Months and ‏.شهور_يا_جليلة‎#8‎ A 

large number of people on both Facebook and Twitter changed their 

profile pictures to Jalila’s picture and dedicated their status updates to 

demanding justice for her. 88 

87 Foreign Policy. Christian Caryl. An Idealist on Death Row. October 3, 2012. 

‏.شهور_يا_جليلة‎#8‎ 88 Girifna. Join Girifna’s Campaign for Jalila #Jalila8Months 

November 7, 2012.


The social media campaign attracted considerable international 

media coverage. Global Voices covered the campaign, summarizing 

the Twitter discussion under the #Jalila8Months hashtag. 89 Open 

Democracy ran an article by an anonymous Sudanese activist, who 

detailed the hardships of Jalila’s detention including her four months in 

solitary confinement. 90 Osman Naway, an outspoken Nuba Mountains 

activist, wrote an article about Jalila’s unjust detention, highlighting the 

plight of the Nuba people and the violations committed by the regime 

in Khartoum against populations of the periphery. 91 And the Egyptian 

ONTV ran a full episode on the situation of human rights on Sudan 

starting with Jalila’s story and focusing on violence against women. 92 

Shortly after the online campaign, Jalila was summoned and told 

that she was to stand trial on December 13, for the first time since 

her imprisonment. 93 To mark nine months into her detention, a video 

was made by an activist, in which her family recounted their personal 

suffering because of her absence, especially that Jalila was the main 

breadwinner for the family as well as a mother and a wife. 94 This rich 

documentation gave Jalila unprecedented popularity and support in 

Sudan and internationally – she was no longer an anonymous, faceless 

detainee. She was a mother, teacher, wife and above all a champion of 

peace and justice for the people of the Nuba Mountains. 

With all the charges Jalila received verbally from NISS now confirmed, 

the stakes were high. The Sudanese regime banned any coverage 

of Jalila’s trial in the print media and delayed the trial several times. 

Nonetheless, the trial was closely watched and documented online by 

journalists, activists, video bloggers and other citizens. This collective 

of supporters made sure that every single detail and failing of the 

Sudanese justice system was circulated on social media and by word 

of mouth. Jalila’s court sessions were heavily attended (including heavy 

attendance by NISS), to the extent that there was often no place to sit. 95 

TWITTER 

2 

89 Global Voices. Maha El-Sanosi. Sudan: Nuba Mountains Activist Detained for 8 

Months. November 11, 2012. 

90 Open Democracy. Anonymous. Jalila Khamis: the high price of courage. 

November 8, 2012. 

91 AllAfrica. Osman Naway. Sudan – Race-Based Violence and Torture. November 

8, 2012. 

92 YouTube. ONtvLIVE. Sudan: Violation of Rights and Torture in Prisons. (In Arabic.) 


93 Girifna. Today Jalila Enters her 9th Month! December 15, 2012. 

94 Girifna. Video: Jalila Khamis’s family tell her story. December 17, 2012. 

95 Girifna. Summary of Jalila Khamis’s Court Session, Dec. 23, 2012. December 

28, 2012.

56 


Live updates from the trial were posted to Facebook and Twitter, 

prompting NISS to allow only journalists in the remaining court sessions. 

But even this step to limit attendance did not stop journalists like Amal 

Habani 96 from updating their Facebook pages with details. Moreover, 

Amnesty International issued a statement requesting that “fabricated 

charges” against Jalila be dropped and the European Union sent a 

representative to attend the trial. 97 

All this public pressure finally paid off when, on January 20, 2013, 

the prosecutor formally closed Jalila’s case declaring lack of sufficient 

information. Jalila was charged with disseminating false information, but 

the 10 months she spent in prison were deemed sufficient punishment 

and she was released immediately amidst celebrations in her honor by 

civil society, her family and neighbors. 98 

96 http://www.girifna.com/7489. 

97 Amnesty International. Sudan: Fabricated charges against Sudanese teacher 

must be dropped. January 16, 2013. 

98 Girifna. Video: Jalila Khamis is Free! January 21, 2013.


What Sudanese activists are 

learning from digital campaigns for 

political detainees 

The success of the campaign to free Nuba Mountains political detainee 

Jalila Khamis was not unique. The experience of Sudan’s civil society and 

youth movements, who have campaigned tirelessly for detainees since 

2009, shows that there are a few key elements of success such as: 

• The more visibility the better. Keeping the story of a detainee in the 

public sphere ensures their protection, contrary to what many lawyers 

and family members may think. 

• Video testimonies from family members are a game changer. 

Videos of mothers and/or families of detainees testifying and pleading for 

their support tend to circulate much faster than written statements. They 

also give a human element to the suffering endured by the families and 

by those in detention. It’s all about telling the story and telling it genuinely. 

• For long-term detainees frequent updates and documentation 

are necessary. These can be in the form of brief statements or opeds, 

preferably in Arabic and English, so that they capture local and 

international attention. 

• Using multiple new media tools to target diverse audiences is 

key. Use all the media tools at your disposal because each tool will target 

a different audience. In the Sudanese new media ecology, Facebook 

will target Sudanese citizens while Twitter will more likely target the 

international media; and satellite TV will capture the Middle East region, 

including Sudanese citizens inside Sudan and Sudanese communities in 

the diaspora. 

• Link your online campaigns with action on the ground and request 

concrete action from your supporters, such as changing their profile 

picture to raise awareness and/or attending an ongoing trial of a detainee 

or a planned solidarity stand. 

• When detainees are freed, remember to celebrate and to collect 

their testimonies in order to help assess their post-detention needs and 

expose the regime’s maltreatment. 

TWITTER 

2

58 


Some useful social media 

applications 

Below are applications that can boost your social media experience. Some 

of them work with a number of social media platforms such as Twitter, 

Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, Google+ and others. However, this is 

not a comprehensive list of social media applications. We will be discussing 

others in later chapters. 

• Storify 99 can curate stories using content from Twitter, Facebook, 

YouTube, Instagram, Flickr and others. It is a great way to amplify and/or 

curate a Twitter campaign or a critical event for documentation and share 

with those not on social media, or who were not part of the conversation 

or were not following the event closely. Here’s an example of a Storify 

that captured a campaign on Sudan’s Public Order Law that took place 

in September 2013. 100 

• Speak to Tweet. 101 This is ideal in situations where the internet is not 

working and people need to communicate and share news urgently. 

“Speak to Tweet” allows you to call a number to record a message that 

is then tweeted on the web. (To see and hear those tweets go to: http:// 

twitter.com/speak2tweet.) This feature was used for the first time during 

the Egyptian revolution when the Mubarak regime shut down access to 

the global internet for a few days. 102 Similarly, a “Speak to Tweet” account 

was also set up for Sudan during #SudanRevolts when there were fears 

that the Sudanese government might cut the internet; it was reactivated 

after the Sudanese government shut down the internet for 24 hours on 

September 25, 2013. 

99 http://storify.com. 

100 Storify. Sudan’s #PublicOrderLaw Back in the Spotlight. September 2013. 

101 https://twitter.com/speak2tweet. 

102 http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/some-weekend-work-that-willhopefully.html.


• BufferApp 103 lets you schedule tweets and create a buffer that will be 

automatically posted. This is ideal for online newspapers with a lot of 

new daily content and limited staff dedicated to tweeting. It also shares 

content from Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ and allows an invited 

team of users to access one account, hence ideal for institutions. 

• Thunderclap. 104 This great app for online advocacy campaigns calls 

itself a “crowd speaking” platform. It was first used by the Obama 

administration to speak out for gun control. Since then it has been used 

by many. Thunderclap permits users to leverage the power of their 

Twitter followers and Facebook friends by asking them to donate their 

tweets and Facebook status updates to a cause. If they agree, there 

will be a synchronized blast of tweets and Facebook posts to create 

attention. To start, open an account on the Thunderclap page, create a 

short message that you want others to share, and invite your network to 

support you. The platform has analytics to help users track in numbers 

the level of support generated. 

• Wefollow 105 is a directory of prominent people on Twitter organized by 

interest or theme. 

• Trendsmap 106 tells you what topics and hashtags are most trendy by 

geographic region. 

• Bitly 107 shortens long URL links. Most useful for use with Twitter. 

• Paper.li 108 can be used with Twitter and Facebook to turn RSS feed into 

an online newspaper that is customized by topics or themes. 

• Flipboard. 109 Mainly for use on smartphones and tablets, this app takes 

content from your social media account, such as Twitter and Facebook, 

and turns it into an easy-to-view magazine. You can also customize and 

produce your own magazines based on specific themes. Download it 

from the Google or Apple stores. 

• TweetDeck 110 /Hootsuite 111 /Tagboard. 112 These are dashboards for 

managing multiple social media accounts and useful for creating analytics 

and reports. Hootsuite also archives hashtags or other Twitter searches. 

TWITTER 

2 

103 http://bufferapp.com. 

104 https://www.thunderclap.it/?locale=en. 

105 http://wefollow.com. 

106 http://trendsmap.com. 

107 https://bitly.com. 

108 http://paper.li. 

109 https://flipboard.com. 

110 http://www.tweetdeck.com. 

111 https://hootsuite.com. 

112 https://tagboard.com.

60 


• Twestival 113 is a global movement of volunteers using social media to 

mobilize communities for a one-time charitable event in support of a 

cause they care about. All events are 100 percent volunteer-run and 100 

percent of the proceeds from ticket sales and donations go directly to a 

charitable project. 

• Unroll.me. 114 This app cleans unwanted clutter from your email, 

especially newsletters and email lists you are subscribed to. After signing 

in, it identifies all your subscriptions and gives you the option to subscribe 

or “roll” subscriptions into one email that you receive periodically. 

113 http://www.twestival.com. 

114 https://unroll.me.

CHAPTER 3 

Crisis mapping 

CRISIS MAPPING 

3

62 


CHAPTER 3 

Crisis mapping 

This chapter introduces readers to basic concepts 

related to crowdsourcing with a focus on crisis 

mapping. Another form of crowdsourcing, 

crowdfunding, is discussed in chapter 4. After 

a brief introduction to the practical applications 

of crisis maps in different sectors, geographic 

locations and situations, we take a look at the 

Ushahidi platform and explain what it has to offer 

and how it has evolved. 

We will then explore a number of other crisis mapping tools that have 

emerged in recent years. Top challenges facing crisis mappers are then 

addressed and some emerging solutions are proposed. 

This discussion on crisis mapping is supplemented with three expert 

interviews that include a talk with crisis mapping expert, Helena Puig Larrauri, 

who speaks about the lessons crisis mappers are learning in Sudan, the 

challenges they are facing and the technical skills and resources required 

to use the technology. We then move to Egypt to learn how crisis maps are 

being used to combat violence against women via the HarassMap project, 

which has now been replicated in other countries. We also spoke to Fareed 

Zain, an engineer who pioneered the first use of crisis mapping in Sudan 

during the 2010 elections. He spoke to us about his experience and the 

lessons learned from that first utilization of the Ushahidi platform in Sudan.


Crowdsourcing: definitions and 

practical uses 

Crowdsourcing is the term utilized to describe using the power of mobile and 

web technologies to reach out to and/or mobilize citizens; in other words, 

using the power of the “crowd” to get information that is shared, most 

often, for free or to get people to act – all in real-time. Those participating 

can be offering knowledge, skills or information, or even donating things. 

Crowdsourcing can also take the form of mining data or using readily 

available information on a specific topic or event that is produced voluntarily 

by users of a social media network such as Twitter or Facebook. 

Crowdsourcing has therefore been described as “a form of universally 

distributed intelligence, constantly enhanced and coordinated in real-time, 

that results in the effective mobilization of skills.” 115 It has been used by 

citizens, journalists and citizen journalists, governments and policy-makers, 

as well as businesses 116 gathering ideas for solutions or innovations, 

amongst many other uses. 

Perhaps one of the first professions or sectors to make use of the huge 

amount of user-generated content on social media was journalism. For 

example, during the 2009 Gaza war, Al Jazeera Arabic and English used a 

Ushahidi platform to crowdsource information about casualties because it 

was too dangerous for journalists to gain access to the Gaza Strip. Al Jazeera 

English and other media outlets also played a major role in amplifying the 

diverse voices of citizens during the Arab Spring revolts by capturing in realtime 

digital news collected from citizens who were witnessing events on the 

ground and sharing the information on social media platforms. Al Jazeera 

then posted that information on its blog, as well as integrating it with more 

in-depth news and verified analysis. 117 


3 

Crowdsourcing has also been used to support more practical citizen 

participation. An example of how governments crowdsource information 

from citizens to fix service-related problems is a US-based platform and 

phone application called SeeClickFix. 118 This application encourages 

citizens living in towns and cities to report problems linked to service 

delivery or infrastructure directly to their local administrators or Department 

of Public Works. By simply logging through their phones, residents can 

send a description of the problem, and its location, supplemented with 

photos. When a request is submitted, a confirmation number is sent to 

115 Tanja Aitamurto. Crowdsourcing for Democracy: A New Era in Policy-Making. 

Publication of the Committee for the Future. January 2012. P. 8. 

116 http://www.innocentive.com. 

117 Philip N. Howard and Muzammil M. Hussain. Democracy’s Fourth Wave? Digital 

Media and the Arab Spring. Oxford University Press. 2013. P. 100. 

118 http://seeclickfix.com.

64 


the citizen and to the appropriate department and the request is placed 

in SeeClickFix’s database, which also eliminates duplicate requests. When 

the issue is resolved, its status is updated and posted. Citizens can submit 

requests in several languages and requests can be anonymous.


Crisis mapping: a basic 

introduction 

Perhaps one of the most prominent crowdsourcing tools to emerge in 

the last few years has been Crowdmapping – also called crisis mapping. 

Crowdmapping refers to gathering information from witnesses on a specific 

issue or mining readily available information generated by users on social 

media. Its uses have included the mapping of displacement of citizens during 

environmental crises, government corruption, sexual harassment of women, 

and election monitoring or fraud, among other things. The information is 

communicated by participants to a map, by sending a text message (SMS) 

through their cell phones or a tweet, or by visiting the website where the 

map is hosted and inputting the information on a form there. 

Crowdmapping is a compelling tool that visually illustrates the scope and 

spread of a certain phenomenon or crisis, and is often followed by extending 

help to those in need or introducing the necessary policy measures or 

solutions. 119 

Although crowdmapping is often compared to geographic information 

systems (GIS), it goes a step further than just visually presenting, analyzing 

and managing data on a map, to capturing a broader set of tasks that allow 

the filtering and categorizing of information. 120 For example, if your map is 

tracking the sexual harassment of women, you can search by location or 

type of attack as well as extract any media or multimedia coverage during 

a certain period of time. Some open source mapping platforms allow 

collaborative updates of maps, meaning that community volunteers can 

interact with and update maps directly. 


3 

119 Tanja Aitamurto. Crowdsourcing for Democracy: A New Era in Policy-Making. 

Publication of the Committee for the Future. January 2012. P. 10. 

120 The Conversation. Marta Poblet and Pompeu Casanovas. Crowdsourced crisis 

mapping: how it works and why it matters. May 15, 2012.

66 



Video explaining what Ushahidi is, how it works and how it has been 

deployed worldwide. 121 

TED talk with social media guru Clay Shirky: How cognitive surplus will 

change the world. 122 

TED talk by Erik Hersman: How texting helped Kenyans survive crisis. 123 

Where it all began: Ushahidi 

Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, is the most popular open 

source crowdmapping platform. 124 It is where the story of crisis mapping 

began as an experiment by a group of bloggers during the post-election 

violence in Kenya in 2007. The aim was to “map incidents of violence and 

peace efforts throughout the country based on reports submitted via the web 

and mobile phones.” 125 At the time, one of Kenya’s most famous bloggers, 

Ory Okolloh, began blogging about the violence, which was not covered by 

the local media. 126 She was soon overwhelmed with information from her 

readers and suggested that a Google map be set up so others could update 

it collaboratively. A group of other African bloggers and technologists read 

her request and decided to act upon it, leading to the creation of Ushahidi. 

Ushahidi allowed even the least connected Kenyan citizens to send reports 

via SMS, after an SMS short code was created with the telecommunications 

company Safaricom. 127 The map that was created helped Kenyans keep 

track of what was happening, report violence, request help and avoid 

dangerous areas. It was also used by relief agencies, such as the United 

Nations, which were providing support to victims. 

Since then the Ushahidi platform has been used by millions in over 100 

countries around the globe, and most of its data is crowdsourced from 

the public using social media and SMS. Ushahidi is now an international 

organization that defines itself as one that, “build[s] tools for democratizing 

information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers for individuals 

to share their stories,” as well as “a disruptive organization that is willing 

121 Vimeo. What is the Ushahidi Platform? 2010. 

122 TED Talk. Clay Shirky. How cognitive surplus will change the world. June 2010. 

123 YouTube. TED. Erik Hersman: How texting helped Kenyans survive crisis. April 

22, 2009. 

124 http://www.ushahidi.com. 

125 http://www.ushahidi.com/about-us. 

126 TED Talk. Ory Okolloh. How I became an activist. June 2007. 

127 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_code.


to take risks in the pursuit of changing the traditional way that information 

flows.” 128 

According to Patrick Meier, 129 a renowned crisis mapping expert (who 

formerly served as Director of Crisis Mapping at Ushahidi), Ushahidi is worth 

a shot because “the platform represents an important convergence of new 

technologies. SMS, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flicker, smartphone apps, 

voicemail and email can all be combined with Ushahidi.” 130 

Since it was formed Ushahidi has gone through several upgrades that 

include: 131 

• Opening up the platform to third party developers for customization. 

• The creation of a smartphone app for Android and iPhones. 

• Easier mapping of multimedia that includes the integration of photos and 

videos. 132 

• In 2010, Ushahidi launched Crowdmap, which allows users to set up 

a Ushahidi map without having to install it on a separate server, hence 

making the process of setting up faster and simpler. 133 Crowdmap also 

allows users to login with their location and add relevant reports and 

information to a map. 

• SwiftRiver 134 is a platform that Ushahidi built that “enables the filtering 

and verification of real-time data from channels like Twitter, SMS, Email 

and RSS feeds.” It allows users to curate and analyze data in real time 

on specific topics. 

• Following the 2013 attack on the Westgate mall, Ushahidi’s team 

released Ping, a phone application that allows users to quickly notify 

family and friends that they are OK, by sending an SMS or email. Ping is 

open source, and has been improved since its first iteration to work on 


3 

128 http://www.ushahidi.com/about-us. 

129 http://irevolution.net. 

130 Patrick Meier. Ushahidi as a Liberation Technology. In Larry Diamond and Marc 

F. Plattner (eds.). “Liberation Technology: social media and the struggle for 

democracy”. University of Johns Hopkins Press. 2012. P. 96. 

131 http://www.open-steps.org/ushahidi-open-source-platform-for-collaborativedata-collection-nairobi-kenya. 

132 Patrick Meier. Ushahidi as a Liberation Technology. In Larry Diamond and Marc F. 

Plattner (eds.). “Liberation Technology: social media and the struggle for democracy”. 

University of Johns Hopkins Press. 2012. P. 97. 

133 http://ushahidi.com/products/crowdmap. 

134 http://ushahidi.com/products/swiftriver and http://www.ushahidi.com/2011/12/13/ 

swiftriver-throws-a-lifeline-to-people-drowning-in-information.

68 


• any kind of phone. 135 A public beta version of Ping is due for release in 

2016. 136 

• Recently Ushahidi launched BRCK, 137 which is a wireless battery and 

router that allows people to have internet access in the absence of 

electricity and/or a wireless internet connection. It is especially geared 

toward use in developing countries and remote locations. 

135 http://ushahidi.com/products/ping. 

136 http://pingapp.io. 

137 http://ushahidi.com/products/brck.


Other mapping platforms and what 

they offer 

Since Ushahidi was first set up in 2007, the sector of geomapping and 

crisis mapping has witnessed phenomenal expansion as well as the 

creation of new tools and platforms to make geomapping more accessible 

to communities and humanitarian volunteers globally. Below is a snapshot 

of some popular tools and what they offer. 


3 

OpenStreetMap 

OpenStreetMap 138 is a UK-based open source mapping platform that 

depends on a diverse community of enthusiastic mappers, GIS professionals 

and humanitarian workers mapping disaster-struck areas or even their 

own neighborhoods. It has over 1.5 million registered users and allows 

its members to access and edit raw data without restrictions or fees. 139 

OpenStreetMap emphasizes the importance of local knowledge in order to 

get the most accurate maps. It is an editable map. One of its best utilizations 

came right after the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, when in a matter 

of days hundreds of volunteers from around the world came together and 

crowdsourced the most detailed map ever produced of Haiti’s capital, Portau-Prince. 

Before that, Port-au-Prince was only partially mapped on Google 

Maps, and with very little detail. 140 A visualization of the evolution of the 

138 http://www.openstreetmap.org. 

139 http://osmstats.altogetherlost.com/index.php. 

140 National Geographic. Patrick Meier. How Crisis Mapping Saved Lives in Haiti. 

July 2, 2012.

70 


OpenStreetMap during a period of 10 days in which more than a million 

edits were added to the map can be seen in this video. 141 

Geo Bucket and Easymappr 

Geo Bucket 142 and Easymappr 143 are easy to use mapping tools that can 

be used by volunteers and communities to gather data. They are geared 

toward users with very limited mapping skills and no map editing skills. 

They were both born in Uganda, under the patronage of the NGO Fruits 

of Thought. Both are applications that run on android smartphones (and 

can be downloaded from the Google Play Android store), but also support 

uploads of .GPX files. Both applications can also integrate maps seamlessly 

into OpenStreetMap. 

Geo Bucket is ideal for unmapped locations. It allows its users to map while 

they walk, by tracking the longitude and latitude of a phone and mapping 

roads accordingly as they move. This information is then uploaded to the 

Geo Bucket website where volunteers can use the information to map roads 

on the OpenStreetMap project. 

Easymappr puts data directly into OpenStreetMap by focusing on mapping 

specific categories of things, such as: drinking water/taps, markets, 

telecommunication towers, bookstores, recycling centers, and toilets. 

Mapbox 

Mapbox 144 is an open source cloud-based map hosting service and a tool to 

design maps that are visually appealing, can tell a story and are easily read 

by non-experts. 145 It is powered by OpenStreetMap and is collaborative and 

easy to update by anyone. Mapbox has been used by news agencies and 

non-profits to create customized, interactive maps with specific data sets 

(voting results during national elections, environmental issues, aggregation 

of a population by gender or age, etc.). On the downside, Mapbox does 

need some cartographic expertise and is hence not suited for direct use by 

communities with limited mapping skills. 

141 YouTube. Kanal von yobiSource. OpenStreetMap – Project Haiti. March 21, 

2011. 

142 www.geobucket.org. 

143 http://www.easymappr.com. 

144 https://www.mapbox.com. 

145 Digital Trends. Brandon Widder. Roll Your Own Maps: MapBox Wants to Become 

the Wikipedia of Digital Cartography. May 1, 2013.


Elva 

Elva 146 was founded in Georgia and has recently been converted from a 

project into an NGO. Elva, which means “lighting” or “express message” in 

the local language, is a mobile phone platform that allows easy feedback 

from local communities via SMS messages. At first glance it may sound like 

Ushahidi, but its founder says there are fundamental differences that include 

the following: 147 

• Elva does not focus on short-term crises, but rather tracks long-term 

issues such as community needs and the impact of policies on specific 

communities. Its founder, Dutch developer Jonne Catshoek, says that 

Elva is about, “governance and civil monitoring.” For example, the Elva 

platform permits its users to vote using SMS text messaging. The results 

are then reflected on a visual and interactive map. This has been used for 

taking national questionnaires on the developmental demands of citizens 

in Georgia. 148 It is also being used now in other conflict zones, such as 

Somalia. 149 

• Elva focuses on two-way communication with communities that 

have low internet penetration. Elva’s SMS format for surveys captures 

very detailed information from just one SMS. Elva’s utilization includes the 

recruitment of community volunteers who are trained to respond to SMS 

questionnaires periodically. 

• With Elva’s SMS function, an online questionnaire can be turned 

into a step-by-step SMS questionnaire. The team conducting the 

questionnaire can advertise a phone number or a short code provided 

by a local telecom company. Those interested in participating in the poll 

can then text the number and the system automatically begins a series 

of questions and responses over SMS, delivering each question in the 

poll as one SMS. 150 


3 

146 http://www.elva.org/about. 

147 Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso. Onnik Krikorian. Elva, crowd-sourcing conflict 

in the South Caucasus. May 15, 2013. 

148 Voices from Eurasia (UNDP in Europe and Central Asia blog). Mark van Embden 

Andres. Elva Community Engagement helps map Georgia’s development 

priorities. October 11, 2013. 

149 Let Them Talk (blog). Helena P. Laurrauri. Re-thinking conflict early warning: 

Participatory polling in the Somali Region. February 22, 2014. 

150 Ibid.

72 


• Elva has a security and conflict monitoring focus. It has been used 

to track incidents in conflict zones. It has also been used for conflict 

prevention by agencies like the United Nations and the European Union, 

and by non-profits. Data collected can be used to analyze trends for early 

warning systems and the software allows the use of regression analysis 

to forecast events. 

Google Crisis Map 

Google Crisis Map 151 is a program for the creation of geospatial maps aimed 

at making information more accessible during disasters; it is targeted at 

those responding to such emergencies as well as those impacted. It was 

developed by Google’s non-profit arm, Google Crisis Response team. 152 

Since 2008 Google has allowed local volunteers to contribute information 

during crises to enrich its maps. For example, Google Crisis Map was used 

extensively during the Pakistani floods of August 2010 and during Typhoon 

Yolanda in the Philippines in 2013. Since the Haitian earthquake (2010), 

Google’s Crisis Response team has responded to 25 disasters. 153 Google 

Crisis Map has the capacity to draw information scattered across the web 

in one place for easy access. They include the latest satellite images and 

information, such as flooded areas, shelters for victims, and neighborhoods 

impacted by power outages. The map is easy to view on mobile devices 

and easy to share on social media and to embed in any website. It also 

allows data to be imported into it in a number of web-friendly formats. 

151 https://support.google.com/crisismaps. 

152 http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/index.html. 

153 Al Jazeera America. Claire Gordon. How Google is transforming disaster relief. 

November 25, 2013.



Crisis Maps from Google.org Crisis Response Team: this video explains 

what Google Crisis Map is and how it works. 154 

The Standby Task Force and the Libya Crisis Map: here Helena Puig 

Larrauri explains the work of the Standby Task Force (SBTF) after its 

first year of operation in Libya. 155 

Patrick Meier, Co-founder of Standby Task Force, talks about the 

SBTF. 156 

Patrick Meier’s TEDx talk on digital humanitarians. 157 

First Mile Geo: Inside Aleppo: A video that talks about the work of First 

Mile Geo in Aleppo, Syria. 158 

First Mile Geo 

First Mile Geo 159 is a relatively new online, cloud-based platform that 

generates printed map surveys and provides online tools to collect, analyze 

and visualize data from polls or surveys that are conducted on the ground 

with the help of local communities. That information is then geo mapped. 

So far First Mile Geo has been successfully used in conflict zones such as 

Syria and Somalia. What makes it particularly fitted for such environments 

is that it is optimized for low bandwidth environments and also allows 

paper surveys to be entered into the platform. It is therefore well adapted to 

situations of poor or unreliable internet connectivity. 

In Syria, for example, First Mile Geo was used to survey citizens in Aleppo 

on questions that covered: safety, population movement, crime, and basic 

service provision. Mapping this information helped assess humanitarian 

needs and also allowed the tracking of armed groups, which was important 

for humanitarian agencies who need to assess the security situation when 

making decisions. 160 


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154 YouTube. Google.org. Crisis Maps from Google.org Crisis Response Team. 


155 YouTube. CrisisMappersNet. ICCM 2011: The Standby Volunteer Task Force & 

Libya Crisis Map. February 2, 2012. 

156 YouTube. USAID Video. DevTalk: Patrick Meier. July 5, 2012. 

157 YouTube. TEDx Talks. Digital Humanitarians: Patrick Meier at TEDxTraverseCity. 

May 31, 2013. 

158 YouTube. First Mile Geo. First Mile Geo: Inside Aleppo. March 21, 2014. 

159 https://www.firstmilegeo.com. 

160 https://www.firstmilegeo.com/case_studies/aleppo.

74 


Top crisis mapping challenges and 

selected solutions 

To wrap up this chapter on crisis mapping (and before we dig into the 

interviews), we have selected the top five challenges that face crisis mappers 

globally and present some tried and tested solutions to those challenges. 

This, however, is not a comprehensive list of challenges that crisis mappers 

have encountered. 

1. The challenge of information overload and limited human 

resources was one of the major obstacles and a burden to mappers in 

the early years of crisis mapping. MicroMappers 161 was born out of this 

earlier experience of crisis mappers who realized that mapping requires a 

huge amount of human resources, because of the need to process the 

phenomenal amount of data generated by social media and survivors on the 

ground. 162 This usually meant that volunteers were quickly overwhelmed and 

that there was a huge backlog of unprocessed tweets and SMS messages 

– it was simply not sustainable during a huge crisis. 

The MicroMappers platform was hence set up to provide a community of 

volunteers who can be called upon, when needed, to gather, analyze and 

map social media data about a specific disaster area. It allows anyone in 

161 http://micromappers.com. 

162 National Geographic. Patrick Meier. How Crisis Mapping Saved Lives in Haiti. 

July 2, 2012.


the world with an internet connection to become a “digital humanitarian.” 163 

MicroMappers is made up of a number of applications called “Clickers” 

(some of which are still under development) that allow users to tag tweets 

and/or images (TweetClicker and ImageClicker). 

All one has to do is log into the MicroMappers website and start categorizing 

tweets and images that are geotagged. It takes three volunteers to decide if 

a tweet is relevant. Only then is that information moved to more experienced 

mappers, who build the map that will be used by humanitarian agencies, as 

well as survivors, to make important decisions. 

MicroMappers was first used, with great success, in south-west Pakistan 

in September 2013, when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the region. 164 

The United Nations reached out to the founder of MicroMappers, Patrick 

Meier, asking for help. This presented an opportunity to test MicroMappers 

even before it was fully developed. Within the first few hours 35,000 tweets 

were collected and categorized by 100 volunteers. 14,000 tweets were 

deemed “relevant” and about 400 images were mapped. MicroMappers 

was also used in the Philippines during typhoon Haiyan. 

This was all made possible through the tireless efforts of the Standby Task 

Force (SBTF) 165 (working under the Digital Humanitarian Network 166 ), which 

is an online volunteer technical community of more than 800 mappers from 

over 70 countries, who are deployed on request by the United Nations and 

others to work on large-scale emergencies. This approach reduces the costs 

of coordination and pulls together a technical network of experts to respond 

faster and on a larger and more sustainable scale. In the next development 

phase of MicroMappers, SMS, video and translation applications are being 

developed to make the data available to mappers using the platform richer 

and more diverse. 


3 

2. Coordination of tasks and communication messages during a 

humanitarian crisis can be a major challenge. Many maps and SMS short 

codes can pop up, leading to the replication of work and data and to the 

confusion of communities receiving this information. For those affected by 

a crisis, access to information is a basic need. It can save many lives by 

raising the awareness of communities about their situation and getting their 

feedback on immediate needs, hence improving the prospect for service 

delivery. However, lack of coordination by those responding can mean that 

beneficiaries do not get the information that is most relevant to them. 

163 FastCompany. Ayana Byrd. Micromappers Lets Anyone Become a Digital 

Humanitarian. November 21, 2013. 

164 Wired.co.uk. Katie Collins. How AI, Twitter and digital volunteers are transforming 

humanitarian disaster response. September 30, 2013. 

165 http://blog.standbytaskforce.com. 

166 http://digitalhumanitarians.com.

76 


Some experts have advised that an “SMS code of conduct” be set up 

to streamline and centralize the flow of information and to make sure 

that information provided to communities is demand driven. Specific 

recommendations here include allowing recipients of SMS messages to 

request specific information depending on their location, and to unsubscribe. 

Other suggestions include setting up a “clearing house” that screens all 

outgoing SMSs, in addition to a complaints mechanism. 167 

One tool that can be used to streamline the division of labor amongst 

different actors responding to an emergency is Crisis Cleanup, 168 which 

is an open source US-based service that is built on Google App Engine 

and allows organizations to login and take ownership of tasks. Those tasks 

are then marked as “claimed” in a log that is transparent to all users of 

the platform. Tasks can be claimed remotely, hence reducing the need for 

coordination meetings. Locations in need of support can be identified and 

people who need help can also access the system to see if their area has 

been served. Crisis Cleanup can therefore allow for more transparency and 

accountability, and has so far been used in 4 countries in response to 12 

disasters. 169 

3. Using technologies closer to the local reality is key. It is vital that 

communities in need are reached through technologies that they can access 

locally, such as local media, community radio, and SMS or text messaging. 

Organizations like Internews 170 and First Response Radio 171 specialize in 

setting up public radio stations in local dialects during emergencies. 

167 iRevolutions. Patrick Meier. Towards an SMS Code of Conduct for Disaster 

Response. March 6, 2010. 

168 https://www.crisiscleanup.org/home. 

169 Social Media for Social Good. Timo Luege. Crisis Cleanup Helps Coordinate 

Disaster Responses. July 9, 2013. 

170 https://internews.org. 

171 http://firstresponseradio.org.


Additionally, the free and open source software FrontlineSMS can assist with 

sending large amounts of text messages, as well as receiving and managing 

SMSs. 172 While FrontlineSMS does not require an internet connection and 

the software can be downloaded for free, you will pay for each text message 

you send and might want to consider negotiating a rate with your local 

telecom provider. 

Video and additional material to read 

A video that explains the power of SMS and FrontlineSMS. 173 

Verification Handbook: An Ultimate Guideline on Digital Age Sourcing for 

Emergency Coverage. 174 

4. Low or unstable internet connectivity is an expected challenge in 

many developing countries or after natural disasters. If this is the case, 

make sure to set up your system so data can be collected and saved offline 

and later synchronized when the internet is available, or use a platform like 

First Mile Geo, 175 which is adapted for low bandwidth. 

5. Verifying information. User-generated content in the aftermath of a 

disaster or emergency can be very high and can include a fair amount of 

rumor or inaccurate information. Nonetheless, user-generated content 

remains a valuable source of information for journalists and crisis mappers 

during a humanitarian crisis or political upheaval. 

Some would go as far as to say that social media have revolutionized 

journalism and allowed real-time coverage even in situations where journalists 

were not able to be on the ground. One such journalist is Andy Carvin, the 

senior social media strategist for National Public Radio (NPR), who shot 

to prominence for his live tweets about Tunisia, Egypt and Libya in 2011 

during the Arab Spring. 176 In his book, Distant Witness: Social Media, the 

Arab Spring and a Journalism Revolution, 177 he describes how he created 

a “Twitter newsroom” by gradually compiling a list of trusted sources, who 

were based in the region and had specialized knowledge and presence in 


3 

172 http://www.frontlinesms.com/technologies/frontlinesms-overview. 

173 YouTube. Tech Change. Laura Walker Hudson on the Power of SMS. December 

5, 2012. 

174 Craig Silverman. Verification Handbook: An Ultimate Guideline on Digital Age 

Sourcing for Emergency Coverage. 2014. 

175 https://www.firstmilegeo.com. 

176 NPR. ‘Distant Witness’: Social Media’s ‘Journalism Revolution’. January 31, 

2013. 

177 http://www.amazon.com/Distant-Witness-Andy-Carvin-ebook/dp/ 

B00ARN9Q2S/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399138922&sr=1- 

1&keywords=distant+witness.

78 


specific locations, with whom he collaborated to verify information posted 

on Twitter. However, Carvin stresses that it is important to get acquainted 

with one’s sources outside social media and to know their affiliations, 

weaknesses, strengths and biases. 178 He noted that he would often press 

his sources for verification and would deeply question the context because 

a lot of context can be lost when people are posting updates in a state of 

shock or from a very specific context or location. 

Crisis mapper Patrick Meier points out that the future of verification in crisis 

mapping is moving toward the use of advanced computing options that 

include combining the use of machine computing and human computing 

(i.e., outsourcing tasks to a human crowd and then collecting and analyzing 

that information automatically). He notes that both fields are new but are 

developing quickly, and gives the example of the Verily platform, a human 

computing tool used to verify social media content, 179 “A parallel goal of the 

Verily project is to crowdsource critical thinking”, says Meier. 180 Verily is like 

a blackboard where information shared is discredited or verified by users of 

the platform. It will be especially useful for verifying conflicting information 

during disasters, such as images and/or videos. The platform has an 

incentives mechanism where people are given points to build their credibility 

and reputation for accuracy. Users of the platform can also post questions 

on Facebook or Twitter that need to be answered with a yes or no. Those 

with evidence can reply directly to Verily with text, pictures or video and are 

required to write a justification or explanation. Verily was launched in 2014. 


Sourcing for Emergency Coverage. 2014. PP. 71 and 75. 

179 http://veri.ly. 


Sourcing for Emergency Coverage. 2014. P. 80.


Interviews 

The uses and challenges of crisis mapping in 

Sudan and what we are learning 

Helena Puig Larrauri 181 is a peacebuilding practitioner who 

focuses on the intersection of technology, peacebuilding and conflict 

prevention. She is a freelance consultant, working with NGOs and 

the United Nations in conflict and post-conflict countries, including 

Sudan, Libya, Cyprus, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan and Iraq. 

Helena is also a co-founder of the Standby Task Force, an online 

volunteer technical community that is active in crisis mapping, 

comprised of more than 800 volunteers from around the globe. 

In this interview, Helena speaks about the lessons crisis mappers are 

learning in Sudan, the challenges they are facing and the technical 

skills and resources required to use the technology. 


3 

Q1. You have worked in Sudan for a few years and have 

seen the way crisis mapping has been adopted by Sudanese 

citizens from its very first uses during the national elections 

of early 2010 to subsequent uses during the January 30, 

2011 protests, during the protests of the summer of 2012 

(#SudanRevolts), and most recently during the humanitarian 

crisis following the floods of August 2013. Can you tell us what 

lessons we are learning in Sudan from these experiences? 

What mistakes do we keep doing that make it hard to benefit 

from fully utilizing the power of the data collected from crisis 

maps? 

The main lesson that people are learning, looking at the evolution 

from the Sudan Vote Monitor, during the 2010 elections to the 

crisis map set up for Nafeer during the floods of August 2013, is an 

increase in focus on what the data was being collected for and what 

it would be used for. 

With the elections, there was a lot of focus on collecting data and 

with voting and electoral fraud, but there wasn’t a clear action plan 

181 http://letthemtalk.org/bio.

80 


as to what would happen with that data afterwards. I think with every 

iteration people are getting better at the things they really need to 

focus on and what happens with the data afterwards. 

In terms of mistakes that I’ve seen, I think there are a few smaller 

ones, but the main one is really a miscalculation on the resources 

that are needed to process data. There is a lot of focus on resources 

and on thinking and on time for collecting data, but I think that 

people using crisis maps in Sudan don’t fully budget for the amount 

of time and the amount of resources that are needed to verify data, 

to clean it and to then analyze it. That’s not something particular 

to Sudan, it’s something crisis mappers in other countries have a 

problem with as well. 

Q2. What are the main challenges for a country like Sudan 

when it comes to employing crisis mapping in these different 

events or scenarios (elections, protests and humanitarian 

crises)? 

There is one challenge that is common to all of these scenarios 

(elections, protests and humanitarian crises) and that challenge is 

the challenge of connectivity. As you know, internet connectivity in 

Sudan is not widespread across the country. It’s pretty concentrated 

in the capital. And mobile phone connectivity is pretty good, but it 

can be patchy. Certainly connectivity with data through a phone is 

very patchy. 

The main problem is that a crisis map is online, typically, and 

Sudanese crisis mappers need to find ways to get data from 

populations that don’t have access to the internet, whether it is 

through mobile phones or through the creative use of radio or word 

of mouth. 

These are very different events in terms of their political context. 

It is easier to have a crisis map for a humanitarian crisis because 

there is a common understanding that if you’re mapping needs, it’s 

something that everyone agrees on. There’s no doubt that people 

are in need. Even if certain political elements would prefer not to 

make that public, it’s an objective fact – people are in need. 

When it comes to elections it gets a little bit more difficult because, 

although there is a common understanding that election monitoring 

is a good idea ... perhaps not everyone would want the outcome of 

election monitoring to be quite so public. 

When it comes to protests it becomes even harder, because there 

are certainly a lot of elements in the Sudanese political scene that 

do not want the truth about what is happening in Sudan to be public 

and visible online. 

The challenge that is different with these three scenarios is the 

challenge of knowing whether a map will be blocked, or whether


the means of communicating with a map will be blocked, or whether 

it will be hacked in some way. For protests, that is a very strong 

challenge. For humanitarian crises that is not really a challenge. 

Q3. In Sudan it seems that so far we have used crisis mapping 

generated by citizen efforts during an emergency of sorts. 

What would you say is a basic checklist for those launching 

such efforts under time restrictions and resource restrictions? 

There are three top things that people need to be thinking about in 

a crisis situation: 

● 

● 

● 

The first one is what will this data be used for? Who is your 

client? Who is your audience? And what are they going to do with 

this data? Are you trying to inform the media? Are you trying to help 

volunteers who are distributing things for basic needs? Are you trying 

to provide information to the National Electoral Commission? What’s 

the aim of the map? That has to be determined very quickly. It should 

be the focus of the map, because you are in a crisis situation and 

resources are limited, so that you really focus your efforts on getting 

the information that is needed for that audience. 

The second thing would be, that in a crisis situation there is a 

tendency to jump to the crisis mapping tool that most people 

know, which in Sudan is Ushahidi, which is an online mapping tool. 

And that might not be the best technical solution. So I would say, 

despite the time pressure, spend a moment thinking about what is 

the best technical solution for what you are trying to do. 

Thirdly in a crisis situation, in particular, there is a tendency to 

think very short-term. So lots of volunteers are willing to work on 

the crisis map at the very beginning. But maybe a week or a week 

and half down the road you’ve lost all the people who were working 

on the crisis map. If you’re being offered volunteers who want to 

work on the crisis map, try to stagger those resources. Don’t put 

them all at the beginning. Try to make sure that a week or a week 

and a half from now you will still have people to run the crisis map. 

There have been uses of crisis maps outside of emergency situations. 

There’s a project called Madrasatna, 182 which is a non-emergency 

crisis map that is mapping schools in Sudan. 

Q4. One thing you mentioned was that people tend to 

automatically think about Ushahidi, but it might not be the 

best option. Are you implying that there are now other options, 

similar to Ushahidi and probably easier to use? 

There are definitely other options. It’s not that they are easier to use 

in all circumstances, it’s that for certain types of jobs, they might 


3 

182 YouTube. Madrasatna. Madrasatna. (In Arabic.) April 29, 2014.

82 


do the job better. And they are just as easy to use as Ushahidi. For 

example, Google’s Crisis Map is a free online resource. It’s more 

useful for certain kinds of information. People might want to look 

at the Elva platform and Caress Geo (which recently changed its 

name to First Mile Geo), which is another mapping tool. There are 

a number of other tools, but I would say these are your top three to 

check, as well as Ushahidi. 

Q5. What guidance can you give citizens and civil society 

groups who want to use crowd sourcing or crisis mapping 

for other purposes (such as tracking youth unemployment, or 

reporting water shortages in their neighborhoods, or sexual 

harassment of women)? What kinds of skills are required to 

use this technology? 

All of the tools that I’ve just mentioned can be used by someone who 

is comfortable on a computer, who is comfortable on the internet, 

but who is not a coder or programmer. You have to be computer 

literate and maybe know how to use an excel spreadsheet. 

However, if you want to use one of those tools and customize it to 

meet exactly what you want to do, so exactly the type of categories 

of data or something a little bit more advanced, then you need 

to have programming and coding skills. You can use a standard 

template of Ushahidi, without any technical skills. But if you want to 

customize it you’ll need some coding skills. 

Some of these tools require you to have server space and to be able 

to install a piece of free software on a server. So you have to get the 

server space and install the tool. If you are not able to do that, then 

you have to use something that is hosted on the cloud or hosted 

on the internet. For example, Ushahidi and some of the other tools I 

mentioned also offer that option for free. 

Q6. The real work behind crisis mapping is done on the 

ground with people and the relevant communities. Can you 

elaborate on that? 

Absolutely, the real work behind crisis mapping is identifying what 

the needs for data are and then finding that data, and collecting 

it in a way that is sensitive to the stories that communities want to 

tell. If you’re thinking about crisis mapping, 10 percent of your effort 

and your human resources should be devoted to the technology 

and to the data processing, and 90 percent of your effort should 

be devoted to community organizing and to talking to people about 

sharing their stories and understanding what they need to share.


Q7. In Sudan, has this been a challenge? Are we learning? Are 

we getting this? 

In Sudan, the groups that are doing crisis mapping initially were 

pretty focused on the technical stuff. There was a divide between 

the people who are really involved in organizing and the people who 

are really involved in the technical side. My sense is that groups like 

Madrasatna are bridging this divide – that they have both. I think that 

Sudanese crisis mappers are getting there. 


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84 


How HarassMap in Egypt is using crisis 

mapping to fight the sexual harassment 

of women 

HarassMap 183 is an online crowdmapping platform founded in 

2010 to address the chronic problem of the sexual harassment of 

women in Egypt. It collects information from witnesses and victims 

of sexual harassment, and uses a referral system to support victims. 

HarassMap also works with community networks on the ground to 

create “zero tolerance” sexual harassment zones. Since its founding, 

HarassMap has grown from a small number of volunteers to almost 

1,000. Its phenomenal success has led to its replication in eight 

countries in North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. 

Rebecca Chiao, one of the co-founders and the director of 

HarassMap in Egypt, spoke about her experience. 184 

183 http://harassmap.org/en. 

184 Human Rights First. HarassMap Founder Addresses Sexual Violence in Egypt. 

November 9, 2012.


Q1. What’s the story behind HarassMap? How and why was 

the idea of HarassMap born? 

The story of HarassMap is a bit of a personal story because me and 

my co-founders, who are Angie Khozlan, Amal Fahmy, and Sawsan 

Gaid, experienced this problem ourselves as women living in Egypt. 

We had all worked on this issue for several years before we launched 

HarassMap. 

The problem was that at the time we decided to start HarassMap, 

there was no project or activity going on in Egypt that was engaging 

the public or working with the public on a social level on this issue. 

There was some work being done by NGOs on advocacy for a new 

law. So we felt that in order to have the laws implemented or to have 

any impact on our daily lives, in our experiences as well as everyone 

else that we know, there needs to be a way to engage all of society 

in working together on this issue. 

To be honest we didn’t want to start this ourselves as an independent 

initiative. We wanted an NGO to take this on because they have 

resources, infrastructure, and experience. But none of them were 

interested so we started HarassMap as an independent group of 

volunteers. It was us four at the beginning and it grew from there. 

Q2. How does HarassMap technically work? What online 

platform does it use? How is data collected? What data does 

HarassMap crowdsource and what is done with that data? 

Our model is a little bit complicated because we have it integrated 

together with different activities. I’ll try to explain it from the first step. 

The very beginning is a Ushahidi-based reporting and mapping 

system. Victims and witnesses can send a report to us about what 

happened to them and where; what their experience was and any 

details they want to provide – and it’s anonymous. They can send it 

by SMS on their mobile phone, by a form on our website, by social 

media like Facebook and Twitter, or by email. They can send a report 

and get an auto-response from us about how to get services that 

are offered for free to victims already existing with [other] NGOs. We 

set up a referral network of organizations that provide support to 

victims. We use this mechanism to try and spread the word about 

this [problem]. 

This is only a small part of what we do. We just started with it because 

it was an amazing opportunity to reach out and open a channel 

of communication to more people than have ever been reached in 

Egypt by an NGO project or a social project at this point. 

When we launched in 2010, 97 percent of Egyptians owned mobile 

phones. Now it is more than 100 percent, technically speaking, 

because many people have more than one. This was for us a very 

attractive way to reach more people geographically and socially than 


3

86 


we ever would have been able to [reach] ourselves, with direct NGO 

work. But we didn’t want this to be just a website, or just a reporting 

system. We want to be able to give people an answer when they ask 

us, “What happens after I report? So what? What does a report do 

to change this problem?” 

Most important to us are these next steps. 

We take all of the reports and publish them on our website 

anonymously and map them on a map of Egypt. So it can be 

communicated that this isn’t a rural problem or an urban problem 

specifically – it crosses all social classes. It crosses all times of day, 

all types of women and how they’re dressed. Sometimes even 

men. So it breaks a lot of stereotypes, and we use this in public 

campaigns that try to change the attitude of society. We target 

mostly bystanders and we try to break the stereotypes that stop 

them from intervening when they see harassment happen. 

A lot of times this means stereotypes of what women are wearing, 

stereotypes about men and what drives them to harass or assault 

women. Our communications unit takes all of this data that we 

collect, and they craft messages that try to rebrand harassment from 

something that is considered cool or acceptable or masculine or fun 

(all of these are what we experience from people today), and we try 

to change that to a more positive role model, that the people who 

are standing up to harassment are cool and masculine and Egypt’s 

future, the people we should look up to. 

Q3. What work is done offline at the community level to 

complement the crowdsourcing of information online? 

We also use this information in our community outreach unit, which 

is the main part of what we do. We have hundreds of volunteers all 

over Egypt, and we train them to organize their own communities 

in ways that engage people to change their behavior from one 

that ignores harassment or accepts it or tolerates it or stays silent 

about it, to one that stands up to it. And we created these zerotolerance 

areas where harassers feel that they’re not welcome or 

that there will be some consequences. This will make them think 

twice about harassing or assaulting someone and hopefully deter 

them in the future. In this way little by little hopefully we will change 

what’s happening on the ground in reality, as well as going beyond 

awareness, going beyond attitude change and making behavioral 

change in the streets. 

This is something we’re also trying to expand into a workplace antiharassment 

campaign, and we’re also starting work in schools and 

universities.


Q4. What were the main challenges with using the crisis map 

(associated with anonymous crowdsourcing of reports of 

sexual harassment) when you first launched it? And how did 

you work around these challenges? 

We had many challenges. When we started we were completely 

volunteers and we had full-time jobs and no money – we paid for 

everything ourselves. We were really limited in terms of capacity and 

for us this was the biggest challenge. From the first day we launched 

we had too many volunteers for us to handle. They were more than 

100, I think. It was difficult to do the plans that we wanted to do 

while not having enough people to keep track of everything, and to 

organize it and carry it out. 

Just after we launched (in December of 2010), the first demonstrations 

in Egypt’s revolutions started in January 2011. Since then we’ve had 

several governmental changes, so we’ve had lots of instability. This 

is also very difficult; it makes planning our community work really 

hard. There is always something going on, so we always have to 

change our plans, and this takes a bigger capacity than what we 

usually have. 

In terms of the data and the technological challenges, the first 

challenge was that we had to adapt the technology to what was 

available in Egypt. Because here in Egypt we couldn’t find the mobile 

phone that uses FrontlineSMS, as directed by the instructions on the 

[Ushahidi] website, we had to find a way around that. 

We don’t have regular internet. We also have a problem with locations 

here. Ushahidi is set up to be a bit automated, so in some countries 

you can just give an address in the phone, or GPS coordinates, and 

it automatically maps the location of the report that you are sending. 

In Egypt we don’t really use street addresses very much, we usually 

describe things like, “In this neighborhood, next to the McDonald’s, 

down the street from the school.” And of course Ushahidi is not able 

to handle this kind of description. 

We also have a language challenge in that reports come in Arabic, 

they come in English, they come in Arabic written in English letters, 

so it’s pretty haphazard. These are challenges that we had to figure 

out. Thankfully we are doing ok with that. 

The verification was a challenge we thought we would have before 

we launched. But as soon as we launched we realized that it didn’t 

turn out to be a problem. Fake reports are really easy to identify, and 

real reports are really clear that they’re real. We look at each report 

personally, and we read it and we make sure that it’s believable and 

it’s mapped accurately and has all the important information in it. But 

we don’t go out and physically verify that people are telling the truth 

because, just like any other data collection, there is going to be the 

possibility that someone exaggerates or someone misremembers 

something. There is always a margin of error because people are 


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fallible – and this isn’t the most important thing. The most important 

thing to us is that we learn important information about what’s going 

on in the streets, so we could address it in an effective way and we 

could share this information with other people addressing it, so that 

they can be effective as well. And that victims and witnesses can 

have a voice – a way to talk about this – and to talk freely and safely 

where they don’t have to fear being punished or being attacked, or 

any of these other consequences that we sometimes hear about. 

Last year there was a terrible incident in Asyut, where a girl who was 

harassed by a man on a motorcycle spoke back to him and spat at 

him. He beat her and then shot her, and she died. So sometimes 

speaking back is not always a safe option. This is important to us as 

well, and to be able to connect people with help. Even though we 

can’t provide professional counseling or legal service ourselves as 

HarassMap, we have partners that do this for free. So at least we’re 

able to put people in touch with them. 

Q5. How were you able to advertise for HarassMap to get 100 

volunteers from the first day? 

It might not be 100. Our numbers during that time when we were 

first volunteers are very inaccurate. I was just making a guess. But 

it was a lot, it was more than we could handle. We didn’t have the 

capacity to advertise. We decided to test our online platform before 

we launched. It was in mid-October when we decided to test this 

out with our friends on Facebook and Twitter just to see if it was 

going to have any technical problems or if it works. Angie and I were 

sitting at my house having lunch together and we just decided to 

do it spontaneously, and within 24 hours the website crashed. We 

don’t know how people heard about this. We thought we were just 

telling our friends. Then we got a lot of volunteers and a lot of media 

coverage; it must’ve been through social media. 

Q6. How has HarassMap evolved from the time it was 

launched in terms of its overall objectives, scope and reach – 

both online and offline? 

We have gotten amazingly better at what we do. When we first 

launched we had a model, a plan. We were able to implement it 

on a small scale, and we got good feedback about it. So [we] kept 

trying to improve how we are doing it, improve our ability to do it and 

continually take feedback and try to implement it. 

We all had full-time jobs, and it was really hard to do this on evenings 

and weekends, especially when the commute in Cairo to and from 

work is sometimes two hours long. It was tough. The real turning 

point was in June 2012 when we got a grant from IDRC for a 

research project. This gave us a little bit of money to hire some core 

staff. When we hired the staff they were incredible. They were much 

more skilled than me and Angie, or any of us. They had the ability to


improve on the work that we are doing, and the plan that we had, to 

incorporate the feedback and make things strong and do a thorough 

job with what the original model was. But then also to expand and 

come up with new ideas that we have never thought of before. 

Starting with the middle of 2012 it was a whole new story for us, and 

we were able to expand the number of places that we are in, but 

also deepen our work and do it in a much better way. Now, instead 

of having a couple of hundred volunteers that were enthusiastic but 

badly trained, we have a couple hundred very well trained volunteers, 

and they have their own teams in their local communities as well, 

and it’s much stronger and much more consistent. 

They are doing much more work on the ground and we are integrating 

creative ideas, like cooperating with a project that does open-mic 

events where people have five minutes to talk about this issue and 

just say what’s in their hearts or what happened to them, no matter 

what they think, whether they agree with us or not. This has opened 

up an important dialogue in communities. 

We are starting a partnership as well with another initiative that works 

directly with harassers, which is something we don’t do ourselves. 

I think this is starting to strengthen the work a lot, and making it 

possible for these local teams in different communities around 

Egypt to have a good, effective and dynamic approach, which is 

appropriate for their communities and led by them and not by us 

sitting in Cairo. So this has been the real change for us. 

Q7. What impact has access to reliable visual, quantitative 

and qualitative data on sexual harassment against women in 

the streets of Cairo had in terms of pressuring the authorities, 

persuading/helping civil society actors and making sure that 

women impacted by sexual harassment get the support they 

need. 

This is something that we’re very slow on setting up. We just found 

a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) consultant to come and help 

us design a formal M&E system. So soon hopefully we will be able 

to have measurements of results. Before this we didn’t have the 

capacity to do it in an accurate, measurable, scientific way – we just 

did it the best we can. 

We have a lot of anecdotal information, and we take feedback after 

every event, after every volunteer-organized community event. We 

take a lot of feedback and we discuss it, analyze it, and we try to 

adjust our program based on that feedback. 

We have some measurements of things like when we make social 

media campaigns, we can estimate the spread, but we can only 

estimate the first layer. If you share something on Facebook you can 


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see how many people shared directly from you, but you can’t tell 

how many have shared from the people who shared. 185 

For example, in our public campaign that we did, countering the 

myths about sexual harassment (this was based on the data that we 

got and the feedback from the field), a lot of people say harassment 

is because of the way people are dressed, or harassment is because 

people are not educated. We noticed that this isn’t held up by the 

data, so we made a campaign that said, “If harassment is because 

of how women dress, then why are veiled women and women who 

wear niqab harassed?” “If harassment is because people are not 

educated, then why are university professors harassing?” We’ve had 

several messages and they went completely viral. 

Even though we can’t measure the exact amount of people who 

saw this because of the way Facebook works, we do have some 

idea on the direct shares. But also anecdotal things like the Muslim 

Brotherhood took our campaign, took our logo off and put their logo 

on, and started sharing with their network, which is amazing for us. 

We love it. 

The idea that this campaign resonated and spread way beyond 

our own networks is a real success for us. So we are weak on the 

numbers, but we have a lot of qualitative or anecdotal feedback from 

people. 

Q8. It’s obvious that HarassMap is very inspirational; it’s going 

global. Can you tell us a little bit about how it’s going global, 

how that interest started and what support do you give for 

countries or communities outside Egypt that are thinking of 

replicating HarassMap? 

We got our first request early on; it came a few months after we 

launched in early 2011. We realized very early on that a program like 

this has to be crafted by people locally. It can’t be something that 

was designed for Egypt and then applied in Canada without any 

changes or adaptation. 

We rely on people taking control over their own replication. So there 

is support that we give them, but it is really limited to coaching. There 

have been 25 other countries that have contacted us so far. Usually 

it starts with sharing our information or anything we have written. 

Then setting up time for a Skype coaching session, and I do that. I 

answer any of their questions, I tell them about the challenges that 

we had, the things that we do differently, what harassment is like 

here. 

185 Facebook has introduced a feature that allows one to see the number of times 

an item or article was shared by others as long as the “shared” button was used.


And how we planned our program, how it’s very important to have 

the online component, but also a strong offline component, and what 

needs to be done in order to prepare for that. What needs to be done 

to answer people’s questions about what happens after they send 

a report, or why they should send a report. To think through all of 

these issues and to brainstorm about planning their local program, 

because harassment and assault look different in different countries. 

Then I put them in touch with anyone who can help them. Ushahidi 

has been a wonderful support. They coach people as well on setting 

up the tech platform. FrontlineSMS can also help people. And 

also create a community so they can talk to each other and share 

experiences. I stay in touch with them in case they decide to give 

me questions later on. We would like to develop this better in the 

future, so we would be able to share best practices or brainstorm 

together and share experiences in a more systematized way. But this 

is something that we haven’t had the time to develop because we 

focus mostly on Egypt. 


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Fareed Zain: Sudan Vote Monitor 

The very first time the Sudanese civil society attempted to use crisis 

mapping was during the April 2010 elections and for purposes of 

observing and monitoring the elections. Through what was then 

called the Sudan Vote Monitor, a Ushahidi-based platform was set 

up to receive information via SMS text, email and an online form. It’s 

noteworthy to mention that this was the first time Sudan was having 

national elections in 24 years and hence, Sudanese citizens, not only 

inside Sudan, but also in the diaspora were anxious to lend a hand. 

We spoke to Fareed Zain, an IT professional and the mind behind 

the Sudan Vote Monitor, who at the time was living in the US and still 

resides there. He acted as the technical architect for the project. 186 

Q1. Can you tell us about your technical/professional 

background and why you thought this Ushahidi-based 

platform or the Sudan Vote Monitor was a relevant solution 

at the time? 

I am an IT professional, that’s what I do for a living, and that is what 

I came to America to do. I work as an IT manager for a major oil 

and gas company. I was basically looking for ways to help the first 

election in Sudan to go well and have chances of success. And I was 

looking for technologies because that is the area that I know best 

and where I can use my own skills to lend a hand. 

Through my research about crisis mapping and using SMS 

technology to help civil society organizations, my objective was how 

to help civil society organizations from far away, since I live in the US. 

186 www.sudaninstitute.org.


When I learned about the Ushahidi platform I did some research, and 

I was convinced that this is the right tool that we needed so we could 

help the civil society do what they do best [during the elections]. 

Q2. Since the experts I have talked to so far tell me that a small 

part of the work of crisis mappers is about the technology 

and a much bigger part is about the outreach on the ground 

and verifying the credibility of the information you receive, 

can you tell us about the partnerships with the Sudanese civil 

society in Sudan and what role they played? 

Our role was to support the civil society, so we were not the ones 

doing the heavy lifting; that was done by the people on the ground. 

Our role was to use technology as an enabler in order to improve 

their chances of success and that is what Ushahidi gave us. It is a 

technology that is familiar and that people can adopt quickly. SMS is 

obviously [a technology] around the world that has been successfully 

used for many applications. 

So what we did is, we tried to help civil society, both in Sudan 

and South Sudan. In the North the civil society organization that 

we partnered with is called Asmaa Society for Women, and in 

South Sudan it was the Community Empowerment for Progress 

Organization (CEPO). 

They were already certified election monitors, so they had people on 

the ground and they were doing election monitoring and reporting 

using paper forms. We came in and took the paper forms that they 

had and then developed the online reporting system, and gave them 

the SMS codes that they can use to send us messages. Then we 

developed the website and the whole reporting mechanism. We 

acted as an enabler, but all the work was done on the ground by the 

civil society. We trained them on how to use the technology, how to 

report, and how to send us reports. 


3 

Q3. What were the biggest challenges both from the technical 

side and from the aspects linked to the environment in Sudan, 

be it social, political or cultural? 

From the technology side there were huge challenges and because 

this is the first time this was done in Sudan we ran into issues that 

people haven’t experienced before. One of the biggest challenges 

we ran into was getting the SMS short codes. In SMS there is a 

technology called short codes which is a 5- or 8-digit code that you 

give to whomever wants to send you these coded messages. That 

code has to be gotten from the telecom operators, so we had to go 

and find the telecom operators. We ended up doing that through 

Zain and securing the access to the short codes, then paying for it. 

Getting the infrastructure set up was a big challenge because they 

were never asked to do something like this before. We worked with

94 


a company in South Africa, which develops software that takes the 

short codes from the telecom operators and aggregates it into the 

back end, so that we can take it from there and report it on our 

website. We had to find another aggregator, where they sell these 

short codes, because in the case of Sudan they were not already 

there; we had to bring them in and introduce them to Zain and 

facilitate that process. 

That was on the technical side. On the ground the big challenge 

was introducing the concept, as well as mobilizing enough people 

to the remote sites. Sudan is very remote and spread out, so getting 

people mobile phones so they can report from wherever they have 

to be was a logistical challenge. 

We also had a special challenge with security because, in the 2010 

elections, [monitoring] was not something that was welcomed by the 

government. In fact on the second day of monitoring our website 

was shut down, and we had to go through all kinds of technical back 

doors to get it back online again. 

Q4. What would you do differently if you were to repeat this 

experience, say for the next elections in 2015? 

We would mobilize early and we would secure the short codes early, 

so we could give the [election] monitors the resources they need. We 

would need to provide them with enough mobile phones so they can 

report from where they are. We would train them. We would also use 

some sort of technology to mask out their numbers, so they’re not 

easily detected or risk disclosing their identity. We would mobilize the 

largest number of monitors that we can and train them early. 

Overall we proved that the technology works and that the civil society 

can adopt it quickly as well as the public. Once we publicized, at 

short notice people were able to pick it up. From my perspective it 

was a very successful undertaking. 

Q5. From what you’re saying, if people are interested to 

use crisis mapping for the next elections, starting early and 

planning early is key to its success? 

Absolutely. That is the key, as well as partnering with a large number 

of civil society [organizations], because civil society is where the 

rubber meets the road, as they say. They are already on the ground, 

so partnering with a representative number of civil society [groups] 

and giving them the resources they need to deploy their monitors is 

vital. That all takes planning and starting early, which is key.

CHAPTER 4 

Crowdfunding 

CROWDFUNDING 

4

96 


CHAPTER 4 

Crowdfunding 

This chapter takes a look at crowdfunding, and 

gives examples of the wide array of crowdfunding 

platforms that have emerged since the tremendous 

success of Indiegogo and Kickstarter that were 

launched in 2008 and 2009 respectively. 

The advantages of crowdfunding over targeting a few individual donors are 

discussed; and the concept of “civic crowdfunding” is introduced, along with 

a discussion on emerging trends in crowdfunding. The challenges related 

to crowdfunding faced by countries under US comprehensive sanctions are 

also presented and solutions are proposed. 

The chapter focuses on the two largest crowdfunding platforms, Kickstarter 

and Indiegogo, providing a detailed comparison to help users make a sound 

decision on which platform to use. A case study of Nafeer, the youth-based 

humanitarian initiative that was established to respond to the floods that hit 

Sudan in August 2013, is presented to showcase how crowdsourcing (in 

the form of both crisis mapping and crowdfunding) was used during that 

national emergency. 

We move on by giving tips and essential steps on how to run a successful 

crowdfunding campaign. The chapter wraps up with an interview with one 

of the team members who executed the OUR SUDAN short film project, 

which used Kickstarter to fundraise. Their experience and the challenges 

they faced are shared.


A basic introduction to 

crowdfunding 

The decentralized nature of the internet and the rise of social media have 

revolutionized and democratized the way citizens around the world are 

fundraising. These online fundraising efforts are often happening outside the 

constraints and rigid hierarchy of institutions and traditional donors by using 

the power of local and global networks to get financial support for projects 

and ideas. 

Crowdfunding, 187 defined as the collection of small and individual donations 

from the “crowd” via online platforms, is historically an old practice, rooted in 

collective action. Hence, crowdfunding exists as a traditional offline practice 

in many cultures from Africa to Latin America. 188 However, it is only since 

2008/2009 that it has become a global phenomenon and an industry that 

was worth USD 5 billion in 2013 (according to the Crowdfunding Industry 

Report 189 ). This is thanks to the unparalleled popularity of companies like 

Kickstarter, 190 an online crowdfunding platform that specifically caters to 

crowdfunding for creative projects and whose three founders all came from 

creative arts backgrounds. 

In the case of non-profit organizations and non-institutional civic initiatives, 

utilizing online crowdfunding platforms has several advantages. It: 

1. Allows a diversification of the donor pool. 

2. Permits fundraising based on locally identified needs that is not led 

by donor agendas or priorities. 

3. Reduces administrative paperwork linked to reporting back to donors, 

which often drains the energy of small local civic organizations. 

4. Increases the potential of engaging diaspora communities from the 

global south in participating in civic or citizen-led initiatives in their countries 

of origin, initiatives that they would not easily have known about otherwise. 

(See the case study on page 109 from Sudan on the Nafeer campaign.) 

5. Increases the agency of citizens organizing collectively at a community 

or grassroots level and outside the boundaries of institutions, by giving 

citizens access to funds while retaining ownership over their projects. 

CROWDFUNDING 

4 

187 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_funding. 

188 Rodrigo Davies. The Digital Pollada, or What I learned About Crowdfunding from 

Peruvian Chicken. April 28, 2014. 

189 http://www.crowdsourcing.org/editorial/2014cf-the-crowdfunding-industryreport/25107. 

190 https://www.kickstarter.com.

98 


6. Institutionalizes the fundraising process by providing a platform 

that is centralized and transparent, permitting multiple actors such as 

businesses, government agencies, non-profits, citizens and donors/ 

supporters to participate simultaneously. 

Since it was founded, Kickstarter has raised more than USD 1.7 billion and 

successfully funded over 85,000 projects globally. 191 This included more 

than USD 200 million raised for film and video projects alone. 192 Some of 

those films went on to win awards and Oscar nominations, such as the 

short documentary Inocente. 

Kickstarter statistics 193 

2012 

YEAR 

2013 

YEAR 

$319,000,000 

pledged 

2,200,000 

backers 

KICK 

$480,000,000 

pledged 

3,000,000 

backers 

18,109 

Projects 

STARTER 

19,911 

Projects 

177 

Countries 

$606.76 

Pledges per minute 

214 

Countries 

$915 

Pledges per minute 

source: https://www.kickstarter.com/year/2012 

source: https://www.kickstarter.com/year/2013 

There is also the all-encompassing, very popular and international 

crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo, 194 which caters to anything from 

creative and artistic projects to technological innovations and humanitarian 

causes. It offers more flexible fundraising requirements than Kickstarter (see 

comparison on pages 106 and 107). 

Indiegogo and Kickstarter have similar funding models, which involve 

charging project creators a 4 to 5 percent platform fee, and an additional 

2 to 3 percent for electronic payment processing. This funding model is 

common to many crowdfunding platforms around the world. 

191 https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats?ref=footer. 

192 Kickstarter Blog. Michael McGregor. A big day for film. March 14, 2014. 

193 https://www.kickstarter.com/year/2012 and https://www.kickstarter.com/year/2013. 

194 https://www.indiegogo.com.


After Indiegogo and Kickstarter were founded, many crowdfunding 

platforms have come into existence, catering to a plethora of interests and 

needs. 195 Some are very specific and geographically localized, such as 

DonorsChoose, 196 an online platform where ordinary citizens can directly 

choose to fund school projects (in the United States) initiated by public 

school teachers. It has included crowdfunding for field trips, books, and 

school supplies, amongst other things. DonorsChoose was founded by a 

school teacher in 2000, and is considered one of the earliest examples of 

online crowdfunding. 

For projects that are unable to find a suitable home on existing platforms, 

it is possible to host an online crowd fundraiser on a personalized platform 

such as the open source crowdfunding platform Selfstarter. 197 However, 

to use this you will need to have web design and programming skills, as 

well as an existing support network. Such support networks, which provide 

automatic marketing and a donor base, are an advantage for small to 

medium-sized projects, and are readily found in the more accomplished 

crowdfunding platforms that have communities of followers and a high 

level of trust attached to them. Some of the advantages that go with a 

customized crowdfunding platform or website include: 

1. No fees linked to using the platform. 

2. The focus is on your project and not the platform that you are using. 

3. You get to control the user experience by controlling the design and 

layout of your website. 

4. You can get access to a larger array of metrics or analytical data 

linked to your fundraising campaign than traditional crowdfunding platforms 

would provide. 198 

CROWDFUNDING 

4 

195 TriplePundit. Crowdfunding Platforms: What You Should Know. June 25, 2013. 

196 http://www.donorschoose.org. 

197 http://selfstarter.us. 

198 TechCrunch. Vikas Gupta. A Look At Play-i’s Successful Crowdfunding Campaign. 

April 26, 2014.

100 


Trends in crowdfunding and the 

rise of civic crowdfunding 

The increased specialization of crowdfunding platforms is one obvious trend 

that has emerged in recent years. For example, some platforms, such as 

Causes, 199 Razoo 200 and CrowdRise 201 are dedicated to supporting the 

causes of non-profit organizations and/or charities. Others cater to personal 

and group projects, such as tuition, medical expenses or even planning 

parties. Examples include Tilt, 202 GoFundMe, 203 Zokos, 204 and YouCaring. 205 

It gets even more specific with platforms such as Experiment, 206 which 

supports crowdfunding for scientific research and innovations. 

Crowdfunding platforms are also becoming localized and are starting to 

slowly appear outside the United States and Europe in the global south. 

This is mainly because local contexts matter and challenges such as 

language and currencies can be addressed by locally-based platforms. It 

is also because research has shown that the location of communities is 

closely linked to who actually uses online crowdfunding platforms; and that 

those who use crowdfunding platforms the most tend to live in the cities 

where those platforms are headquartered. 207 

Examples of crowdfunding platforms from the Middle East 208 region include 

Yomken. 209 Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Egypt, it supports small 

industrial workshop owners (glassblowers, mechanics, etc.), by linking them 

with problem solvers and innovators, as well as investors. There is also 

Aflamnah 210 (founded in June 2012) which is based out of Dubai in the UAE 

and caters to filmmakers from the Middle East region. Also based out of 

the UAE and founded in mid-2013 is Eureeca, 211 which is a crowdinvesting 

platform that links small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs to investors and 

retailers who want to support new business ideas. 

199 https://www.causes.com. 

200 http://www.razoo.com. 

201 http://www.crowdrise.com. 

202 https://www.tilt.com. 

203 http://www.gofundme.com. 

204 http://www.zokos.com. 

205 http://www.youcaring.com. 

206 https://experiment.com. 

207 Rodrigo Davies. The Digital Pollada, or What I learned About Crowdfunding from 

Peruvian Chicken. April 28, 2014. 

208 The National. Neil Palmer. Crowdfunding in Mena region finally starts to take off. 

May 5, 2014. 

209 http://yomken.com/?lang=en. 

210 http://www.aflamnah.com. 

211 http://eureeca.com.


In Latin America, popular crowdfunding platforms include the Brazilian site 

Catarse 212 that supports creative projects. It was the first crowdfunding 

platform to make its platform’s code open source and therefore available for 

others to copy or build upon. To date, at least 10 crowdfunding platforms 

have been built using Catarse’s code. 

Crowdfunding that specializes in creating a shared public good or a service 

to a community is sometimes referred to as civic crowdfunding. 213 Examples 

include creating green spaces or parks, renovating playgrounds, building 

community centers, or organizing cultural festivals. Some experts argue 

that crowdfunding generally, and civic crowdfunding specifically, is a form 

of self-management that citizens are moving toward, and that it is replacing 

the work of governments and shifting the responsibility and risks of State 

institutions to individuals, especially at times of economic strain. Civic 

crowdfunding also allows individuals to have ownership over their projects, 

and lets them take more responsibility and risk that in the past used to be 

concentrated in the hands of institutions. 

Rodrigo Davies, who is an expert in civic crowdfunding, argues that civic 

crowdfunding is also institutionalizing the process of crowdfunding by 

creating centralized and transparent mechanisms that permit the creation 

of diverse partnerships, such as the intersection of crowdfunders with the 

private sector, public sector and civic communities. He says: 

Therefore we might say that the optimal form of civic crowdfunding 

occurs at the intersection of all four interests, with each 

contributing to the outcome. That is to say, the ‘perfect crowd’ 

for a civic project involves all actors, since public projects in the 

built environment that serve civic goals will impact or intersect with 

the interests of government, for-profit and nonprofit organizations, 

and the crowd. 214 

Spacehive, 215 the first online crowdfunding platform that caters to civic 

projects (launched in 2012), does exactly that by bringing together people 

from local communities who have ideas for civic projects with businesses, 

government bodies and even design professionals who want to invest in 

these projects. Spacehive also works with grant-making organizations to 

help them set up matching-funding schemes 216 for projects they want to 

support. The platform is London-based, and supports only communities 

in the United Kingdom, but its model has inspired the spreading of the 

CROWDFUNDING 

4 

212 https://www.catarse.me. 

213 Rodrigo Davis. Is Crowdfunding Participatory Citizenship or a Sign of Institutions 

in Decline? March 23, 2014. 

214 Rodrigo Davis. What’s civic about civic crowdfunding? December 3, 2013. 

215 http://spacehive.com. 

216 https://spacehive.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201812067-I-want-tomatch-fund-projects.

102 


idea of online civic crowdfunding to the United States. Examples include 

Citizinvestor 217 and Neighbor.ly. 218 

Both Citizinvestor and Neighbor.ly approve project ideas from citizens only 

if they have been backed by their local municipality or city hall. 219 However, 

both platforms do permit citizens to propose projects. In the case of 

Citizinvestor the focus is on small-sized projects (USD 10,000- 20,000). 220 

Once a citizen’s petition reaches its funding goal, Citizinvestor goes the 

extra mile by introducing citizens who initiated the petition to the appropriate 

people in their city municipality. This model of online civic crowdfunding 

platforms clearly demands a more hands-on approach by the platform 

owners who are required to vet projects and build relationships with local 

governments and businesses. 

217 http://www.citizinvestor.com. 

218 https://neighbor.ly. 

219 TechPresident. Miranda Neubauer. Three Kickstarter-Inspired, Civically Minded 

Crowdfunding Sites. July 31, 2012. 

220 Mashable. Kenneth Rosen. Citizinvestor Helps Grab the Ears of Local 

Governments. September 18, 2012.


Crowdfunding for countries under 

US sanctions 

It is important to do your research before embarking on an online 

crowdfunding campaign. Most crowdfunding platforms have a support desk 

where you can send questions and ask for help and advice even before you 

launch your project. This is particularly true of the more reputable, sizable 

and international crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. 

These platforms also have online resources, such as the Kickstarter Creator 

Handbook. 221 

If your project is linked in any way to a country under US comprehensive 

sanctions (i.e. Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria) and you are 

contemplating the use of an American crowdfunding platform, it is imperative 

that you contact the support desk and make them aware of your fundraising 

campaign and get their approval before you launch. 

However, do not expect these companies to know the sanctions regime 

pertaining to your country. It is your job to know all exemptions under US 

sanctions law and to make the relevant arguments to support your project. 

All documents related to the sanctions regime can be found on the website 

of the Department of Treasury. 222 

CROWDFUNDING 

4 

221 https://www.kickstarter.com/help/handbook. 

222 http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions.

104 


In the case of Sudan, the sanctions exemptions include any projects to 

be implemented in: “Southern Kordofan/Nuba Mountains State, Blue Nile 

State, Abyei, Darfur, and marginalized areas in and around Khartoum – 

referred to as ‘the Specified Areas of Sudan.’” 223 

The main obstacle facing the use of crowdfunding in US-sanctioned 

countries is the inability to conduct any commercial transactions online, 

since the use of credit cards is restricted and the transfer of funds from the 

US to Sudanese banks or to individuals inside Sudan is also prohibited. 

However, Sudanese civil society groups have successfully used online 

crowdfunding in the last couple of years. Examples include creative 

projects such as the short film OUR SUDAN, 224 as well as development or 

humanitarian projects such as the reconstruction of Al Huda School, which 

gives free basic education to 230 internally displaced students from the Nuba 

Mountains. 225 In both cases the main requirement was to have members of 

the Sudanese diaspora involved so that a bank account associated with the 

fundraising campaign could be opened in a non-sanctioned country. 

Moreover, Sudanese civil society groups have also succeeded in 

crowdfunding by appealing to diaspora communities through social media 

and organizing transfer of funds to individual bank accounts that are then 

sent to Sudan (see case study on Nafeer below). 

Although Sudan does not yet have an official mobile money platform, such 

as M-Pesa, 226 which is popular in Kenya and other parts of East Africa, 

transferring funds via mobile phone credit is becoming more accepted 

around the country. It is increasingly common for the general population 

and members of civil society to transfer funds by sending mobile phone 

credit to a cell phone for exchange into cash. This looks like a good option 

for in-country, offline crowdfunding activities, given the restrictions on credit 

card use under the US sanctions, which limit the use of American online 

crowdfunding platforms. However, transferring funds via phone credit 

also has the disadvantage of not being as transparent, outreaching and 

centralized as an online platform. 

223 Department of the Treasury. Office of Foreign Assets Control. Sudan Sanctions 

Program. Updated November 5, 2013. 

224 YouTube. Northernlightist. OUR SUDAN. June 6, 2013. 

225 Indiegogo. Campaign. Dalia Haj-Omar. Support Nuba Mountain IDP Students. 

December 13, 2013-January 19, 2014. 

226 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa.


Choosing a crowdfunding platform 

Indiegogo vs. Kickstarter 

Indiegogo and Kickstarter are the most popular online crowdfunding 

platforms. Although at first glance they may look similar, there are 

fundamental differences. Both platforms offer a huge community of users 

and high credibility; and both require that those initiating a project choose 

a funding goal as well as a deadline and a media pitch for the fundraising 

campaign. Additionally, those who start projects on the two platforms have 

100 percent ownership over their projects. But beyond these similarities 

there are important differences that include: (1) the fundraising model 

(an all or nothing approach with Kickstarter versus a flexible model with 

Indiegogo); (2) the types of projects that can be funded; (3) the processing 

fees; and (4) perks or rewards to supporters. The table on the next page 

compares and captures in more detail the differences between Indiegogo 

and Kickstarter based on those four categories. 

Although some people may turn away 227 from using Kickstarter because of 

its “all or nothing” crowdfunding model, the company defends that approach 

by stressing that it is motivating and will make people work hard at spreading 

the message and seeking support for their projects. 228 They add that to date 

44 percent of projects on the Kickstarter platform have been funded. It also 

makes more sense to go for an “all or nothing” crowdfunding option if your 

project cannot be implemented unless it meets the set goal. If that’s not the 

case because, for example, you are seeking funds both online and offline to 

meet your goal or you do not need to meet your goal to launch your project, 

then a flexible crowdfunding option may be more suitable for you. 

Finally the insistence on a physical reward/perk may be a problem in countries 

where the postal service is poor, non-existent or unreasonably expensive, 

as is the case in many developing countries. Going with Indiegogo’s more 

flexible model that allows you to skip on offering rewards to your backers 

might be an advantage in this case. Another option is to choose perks that 

are memorable but non-physical, such as an invitation to an event or a 

Skype chat with the project creator. 

CROWDFUNDING 

4 

227 ZDNeT. Ken Hess. Despite its popularity, I hate Kickstarter. November 22, 2013. 

228 https://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/kickstarter+basics?ref=faq_ 

subcategory#Kick.

106 


Comparison between Indiegogo and Kickstarter229230231232 

Indiegogo 

1. A flexible model of fundraising. You 

can choose a fixed funding approach 

where you only receive the funds 

collected if you reach your fundraising 

goal; or a flexible funding approach 

where you collect all funds raised 

even if you do not reach your goal. 

Note that processing fees are 

higher for the flexible fundraising 

choice (see below under “fees” for 

more details). 

2. What is funded? There are no 

restrictions to the type of projects 

funded as long as projects do not 

violate Indiegogo’s terms of use. 229 

Kickstarter 

1. An all or nothing fundraising model. 

You have to meet your indicated goal 

to receive the donations raised. If you 

do not meet your goal all funds are 

returned to their donors, and you are 

charged nothing. Kickstarter says 

that 44 percent of all projects in its 

platform get funded. 

2. What is funded? Kickstarter restricts 

the use of its platform to concrete 

creative projects under the categories 

of: art, comics, design, fashion, 

film, food, music, photography, 

publishing, technology and theatre. 

Recently Kickstarter added two new 

categories, 230 journalism and crafts, 

in addition to 94 subcategories. 231 

You cannot start your project before 

getting an approval from Kickstarter. 

More is explained in the “Our Rules” 

section of the website. 232 

229 https://www.indiegogo.com/about/terms. 

230 Kickstarter Blog. Introducing Two New Categories: Journalism and Crafts. June 

11, 2014. 

231 Kickstarer Blog. A subcategory for everything. April 18, 2014. 

232 https://www.kickstarter.com/rules.


Indiegogo 

3. Fees. If you meet your funding goal 

Indiegogo charges 4 percent of all 

funds collected regardless of whether 

you chose a fixed funding or flexible 

funding campaign. Non-profits based 

in the US pay 3 percent. If you do not 

meet your funding goal, for a flexible 

funding campaign, Indiegogo collects 

9 percent of all funds raised; with 

a fixed funding campaign you get 

nothing and all donations are returned 

to funders. Add to this amount credit 

card processing fees that can range from 

3 to 5 percent. For more details check 

out the “fees and pricing” page. 233 

4. Perks or rewards. Indiegogo gives 

its users the option of opting out 

of offering a perk, but they also 

encourage users of their platform 

to create perks and say that, 

“campaigns offering perks raise 143 

percent more money than those 

that do not. Perks help you attract 

a larger audience, make people feel 

more valued for their contributions, 

and help you spread the word about 

your campaign.” 235 They define perks 

as “nonmonetary incentives that 

campaigners offer in exchange for 

your contribution.” 236 

233234235236 

Kickstarter 

3. Fees. Kickstarter collects a 

5 percent fee applied to all funds 

collected, in addition to a 3 to 5 

percent credit card processing fee. 234 

4. Perks or rewards. Kickstarter 

requires that all its users offer rewards 

as incentives to donors/backers. 

They emphasize that, “every project’s 

primary rewards should be things 

made by the project itself”, and advise 

keeping prices at a reasonable level. 

Rewards can also be in the form 

of “creative experiences,” such as 

invitations to the set during filming a 

movie, or a public acknowledgement, 

or even writing a personal thank you 

note or post card. 

CROWDFUNDING 

4 

233 https://support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us/articles/204456408-Fees-Pricing. 

234 https://www.kickstarter.com/help/fees. 

235 http://go.indiegogo.com/playbook/life-cycle-phase/setting-up-your-campaign. 

236 http://go.indiegogo.com/playbook/contributing.

108 


Comparison: Indiegogo vs. Kickstarter 

KICK 

STARTER 

A flexible 

fundraising 

model 

Dream 

Project 

funding model 

A fixed 

fundraising 

model: 

all or nothing 

No restrictions 

Humanitarian 

Small Business 

Creative projects 

what is funded 

Restricted to 

Creative projects 

Fixed funding: 4% 

or 

Flexible funding: 9% 

+ 

Credit card processing: 3-5% 

fees 

Fees on funds collected: 5% 

+ 

Credit card processing: 3-5% 

Optional 

Required 

perks & rewards



The story of #Nafeer: 

crowdsourcing in action 

During the floods that impacted Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, in August 

2013, a youth-based initiative called Nafeer 237 (inspired by the Sudanese 

tradition of collectively helping those in need) used a variety of social 

media and ICT tools 238 that included Facebook, 239 Twitter, 240 Flickr, 241 

and a crisis map. 242 With these tools they mobilized a huge network 

of up to 8,000 volunteers who raised funds online and offline, and 

provided relief to impacted citizens much faster than the government 

and United Nations agencies. 

Most of the donations came from Sudanese businesses and diaspora 

communities via announcements on Facebook 243 and Twitter 244 in the 

form of in-kind and cash donations. The Facebook message 245 below 

announcing the need for life jackets and vehicles is an example of the 

calls for donations posted on social media. There were also similar 

calls for the mobilization of volunteers to specific locations that needed 

immediate relief. 

CROWDFUNDING 

4 

237 The New York Times. Isma’il Kushkush. As Floods Ravage Sudan, Young 

Volunteers Revive a Tradition of Aid. August 29, 2013. 

238 Pambazuka News. Mobilization in the age of parallel media. September 12, 

2013. 

239 https://www.facebook.com/gabaileid. 

240 Twitter. @NafeerCampaign. 

241 Flickr. Nafeer Sudan. 

242 https://khartoumflood.crowdmap.com. 

243 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=553885294658675&set= 

a.551661601547711.1073741828.551549528225585&type=1 

244 https://twitter.com/NafeerCampaign/status/372129849730957312. 

245 https://www.facebook.com/NafeerInitiative/posts/552400651473806

110 


The majority of the volunteers on the ground were not the traditional 

civil society crowd. Many were professionals who came from the private 

sector and had useful technical skills that are usually lacking in a typical 

civil society organization. Nafeer had its own engineering and medical 

teams. A Crisis Map, 246 for example, was created by a young female 

software engineer while she was trapped in her house during the heavy 

rains. The map was eventually used by Nafeer, NGOs and the United 

Nations to locate the most needy areas for relief. Even the government’s 

Civil Defence “hotline” was referring people to Nafeer. 

Nafeer, however, did face some technical challenges linked to the 

impact of US sanctions on free access to the internet. Nafeer’s 

members were unable to use a more centralized online crowdfunding 

platform because PayPal closed Nafeer’s account, citing the sanctions 

on Sudan. In a tweet referring to operational obstacles that the mayor 

of Khartoum was creating for the group, Amjad Fareed, one of the 

initiators of Nafeer, said: 

The Americans closed #Nafeer’s PayPal account because of 

the sanctions on Sudan. What challenges are we supposed 

to deal with, those from the Mayor of Khartoum or from the 

Americans? 247 

246 The Daily Beast. Amanda Sperber. Crowdsourcing Help for Flooded Sudan. 

August 15, 2013. 

247 https://twitter.com/amjedfarid/status/370239060427550720.


US sanctions made the collection of funds from diaspora groups much 

more burdensome, since it was not possible to streamline the process 

and centralize it in one place. Multiple account numbers of diaspora 

focal points (mainly in the Gulf, Europe and the United States) were 

posted on Twitter and Facebook for those willing to donate. Despite this 

decentralization challenge, Nafeer members continued to make public 

all the funds donated via their Facebook page. 248 This created a new 

model of transparency for civil society, regardless of the challenge of 

tracking donations that came from many countries and were sent to 

multiple bank accounts of members of the diaspora. 

The Nafeer campaign marked the first time crowdfunding was 

attempted in Sudan during a national humanitarian crisis. Since then 

there have been several crowdfunding efforts by civil society, not all 

linked to developmental or relief efforts. They required that Sudanese 

in the diaspora assist with linking the crowdfunding page with a bank 

account in a non-sanctioned country. 249 

CROWDFUNDING 

4 

248 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=122169817953591&set= 

pb.121094181394488.-2207520000.1387320960.&type=3&theater. 

249 http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1551224532/our-sudan-a-short-film-toinspire-a-new-generation?ref=live.

112 


Photo taken of volunteers during the “paint and run” school renovation campaign 

led by the Sudanese youth group Education Without Borders, December 2012. 

How to run a successful 

crowdfunding campaign 

Most crowdfunding platforms have tips 250 on their websites to help you set 

up your campaign. 251 However, as mentioned before, crowd fundraising 

is not a new concept; the internet has just made it more accessible to 

everyone. Hence, some of the traditional tips for fundraising that apply offline 

also apply online. Crowdfunding is not automatic or easy; be prepared to 

work hard at planning before, during and after the launch of your campaign. 

Below are some essential steps you need to take: 252 

• Invest in building a community of supporters long before you launch 

a fundraising campaign. Have a monthly newsletter that goes to all your 

networks. Use social media to expand the reach of your network and to 

communicate your successes and share your work. Engage with your 

audience and invite them to your events. 

• Create a crowd fundraising campaign team. Campaigns led by a 

team get more donations than those led by individuals. 

• Set specific, time-bound and realistic objectives. Your supporters 

need to have a concrete idea about how their donations will be used. 

Indicate three to four clear and measurable objectives. 

• Your fundraising monetary goal needs to be realistic and conservative. 

To calculate it, do an actual cost analysis of how much you need to 

250 https://support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us/articles/204458068-Checklist-Before- 

Creating-A-Campaign. 

251 https://www.kickstarter.com/help/handbook#defining_your_project. 

252 CrowdFundBeat. Ben Lamson. How to Successfully Crowdfund for Your 

Nonprofit. November 14, 2013.


13 steps to running a 

crowdfunding campaign 

13 steps to running a crowdfunding campaign 

1. Build a community of supporters 

2. Create crowdfunding team 

3. Set clear and time-bound objectives 

4. Set a realistic monetary goal 

5. Decide length of campaign 

6. Prepare a media pitch 

7. Pick an image and a title 

8. Have a soft launch 

9. Spread the word 

10. Reach donors online and/or offline 

11. Thank your backers 

12. Update your supporters 

13. Capture lessons learned 

• implement your project; then look at the size of your network of “real” 

supporters. Indiegogo advises that you should plan to get about 30 

percent of donations from your direct network and community. 253 Do not 

forget to filter in the processing fees of the crowdfunding platform that 

you will use, as well as the cost of awards or perks (if you choose to offer 

them). Be conservative and choose a minimum funding amount that will 

allow you to meet your objectives. 

CROWDFUNDING 

4 

• The length of your campaign should allow you to build momentum 

and at the same time engage with your audience for a sufficient amount 

of time. Shorter campaigns are usually more effective. Remember that 

your campaign will require human resources as well as a lot of follow-up 

and interaction with your audience, so 30 days is much more reasonable 

than 60. 

• Prepare your communication/media pitch. Both Indiegogo and 

Kickstarter stress that projects with a video are much more successful. 

A video does not have to be expensively produced or of professional 

253 http://go.indiegogo.com/playbook/life-cycle-phase/setting-up-your-campaign.

114 


quality, but make sure that it is short (three to four minutes) and explains 

who you are, what you want to do and how. The more personal your 

video the better, so try to tell a personal and compelling story – people 

often donate because they believe in individuals. Also, write a short 

narrative description that you can add below the video and send to your 

closest friends and community via email. 

• Pick an image and title. Your title should be short and should capture 

the essence of your project. 

• Do a soft launch. Draw a list of your closest friends and supporters and 

contact them before the official launch to ask them to make a contribution 

within the first three days. This will help you start above the zero mark. 

Building this early momentum will encourage those outside your network 

to donate when they see that others have already done so. 

• Spread the word. Count on your personal network of friends, family 

and professional supporters first and foremost. Prepare email lists and a 

description of the project beforehand. Include clear directions on how to 

donate and provide a link to your campaign page. Use social media to 

spread the word and ask your main supporters to share. 

• Reach your donors wherever they are. If some of your essential 

supporters are shy with using technology to donate, reach them in 

the way that is most comfortable for them. Consider hosting an offline 

fundraiser to supplement your crowdfunding campaign. Allow supporters 

to give via cash or checks or to send credit via text messaging. 

• Thanking your backers is key. All crowdfunding platforms send an 

automatic confirmation and a thank you message to donors after each 

contribution. However, a personal message of gratitude goes a long 

way. Some perks include handwritten postcards and thank you notes. 

Thanking your donors during the campaign allows you to update them 

on how your campaign is doing and to ask them to help out by recruiting 

a friend or two and spreading the message to their networks. 

• Long-term communication and updates. Once your crowdfunding 

campaign is over, plan to send two to three updates during the 

implementation phase of your project. They can be short videos or text 

supported by photos. Long-term communication after your fundraiser is 

done builds credibility with your community and demonstrates impact 

that ensures future support. 

• Learn and capture lessons. Most crowdfunding platforms have 

analytics and metrics to track the progress of your campaign in real time. 

You can know things like: the number of people who visited your page; 

the geographic location of your backers; how much is being donated 

per day; and where the donations are coming from (email solicitations, 

Facebook, Twitter, etc.). In Indiegogo, for example, you can also see how 

much everyone in your campaign team is raising. Collectively this data 

can be used to help you see what outreach strategies are working best, 

and what you may need to change for the next time.


Interview: 

Crowdfunding for the OUR 

SUDAN short film 

Sudanese civil society’s creative and artistic efforts are starting to 

slowly turn to the internet and specifically to crowdfunding to secure 

financial support for projects. Recently, we have especially seen this 

in the creation of short films such as OUR SUDAN 254 and Adam & 

Howa, 255 which screened at the Cannes Film Festival “2015 Diversity 

in Cannes Short Film Showcase,” in May 2015. With Sudan suffering 

from US imposed sanctions, Sudanese citizens inside Sudan are not 

able to do any financial transactions online. Hence the support of 

Sudanese diaspora members with crowdfunding is essential. 

Dimah Abdulkarim, who was part of the OUR SUDAN support 

team that oversaw the crowdfunding process 256 joined us for this 

interview. She is an American-Sudanese, has a background in 

international development and peacebuilding, and has been living in 

Sudan for the last two years, working as an organizer in supporting 

grassroots civil society environmental organizations. 

CROWDFUNDING 

4 

254 YouTube. Northernlightist. OUR SUDAN. June 6, 2013. 

255 Kickstarter. Sarra Idris and Mitch Stockwell. Adam & Howa: A short fantasy film 

set in Khartoum, Sudan. 

256 Kickstarter. The Our Sudan Team. Our Sudan: A Short Film to Inspire A New 

Generation. February 17, 2013.

116 


Q1. Can you explain your role as a recently returning Sudanese 

from the diaspora, and the basic requirements that make 

crowdfunding technically possible? 

In Sudan, I worked with development NGOs, and I’ve participated 

in grassroots work on a volunteer basis with organizations working 

on environmental issues and peacebuilding. But I quickly realized, 

soon after arriving to Sudan and after having become acquainted 

with people within my own generation (I’m in my 20s), that Sudanese 

young people learn of others with similar interests through online 

platforms. They also make contact and mobilize through online 

platforms, the biggest being Facebook. 

Crowdfunding in Sudan is still not yet developed or extensively 

utilized or even realized. Most people here are not familiar with 

online opportunities for funding, mainly because crowdfunding sites, 

such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo, are developed in countries that 

economically sanction Sudan. 

So even though in Sudan [there are] great ideas for business 

projects, or interesting technological or scientific inventions, or 

social enterprise and initiatives, those who are also aware of these 

platforms for raising funds online have no easy access to Kickstarter 

or Indiegogo or any other online crowdfunding platforms. They 

are, unfortunately, not allowed to access established, reliable 

crowdfunding sites. 

The sole technical requirement to be able to access crowdfunding 

sites [from inside Sudan], is to have access to online banking in a 

non-sanctioned country, so donors can wire money through their 

accounts. Donors must also have non-sanctioned bank accounts, 

and as you know Sudan is not one of those countries. 

Q2. OUR SUDAN chose Kickstarter as the platform to execute 

the crowdfunding. Did you consider or research other 

crowdfunding platforms? Why did you choose Kickstarter? 

We were simply more familiar with Kickstarter at the time. We 

chose Kickstarter because, after looking at some of the other online 

crowdfunding options, we decided we simply liked Kickstarter more.


Q3. Was it hard to reach your designated funding goal? Was it 

nerve-wracking given that with Kickstarter you have to meet 

your goal or more, otherwise you do not collect anything at 

all? 

The challenges that we faced came in different forms, shapes and 

sizes. It was nerve-wracking using Kickstarter. We had to really work 

to reach our funding goals. We knew from the onset though that 

it wasn’t enough to simply make the video project cool, upload it 

to the Kickstarter page, and then sit back and watch the thumbs 

rolling. We had to solicit our friends and family by sending emails, 

making calls, and redirecting them to our Kickstarter page. We also 

created a Facebook page and a Twitter account which generated 

visibility for the short film and it sourced a lot of potential individual 

donors. 

The challenge that we faced was that we wanted to source people 

in Sudan as potential donors, we didn’t want to just stick to the 

Kickstarter page and the Kickstarter account mode of fundraising. 

We attempted other fundraising options. We approached some of 

the local businesses here, for instance, for sponsorship and support, 

some of whom followed through. 

Q4. Can you speak about the challenges you faced – specific 

to the technology and also more generally to fundraising? 

We have faced challenges, some of which we are still facing actually, 

even after the finishing of the filmmaking aspect of the project. 

For example, part of the Kickstarter mandate is that people who 

give above a certain amount, even a small amount, receive gifts in 

exchange for their donations. Our gifts came in the form of t-shirts 

and posters and some other merchandise items. The project team 

decided that the items must be made in Sudan. Being that we’re 

operating in a sanctioned country, we’ve experienced (and still are 

experiencing) the difficulty of shipping these items to all 130 of our 

donors who are all over the world. It’s not as straightforward as 

posting the items from Khartoum and mailing them. Just like we had 

to rely on those of us in the project team who have offshore bank 

accounts to establish the Kickstarter account, we also have to rely 

on those of us who can travel so they can ship these items from a 

non-sanctioned country. 

CROWDFUNDING 

4 

This is actually quite heavy; remember we are a small project team. 

All of us have full-time jobs. Imagine carrying all this merchandise 

with you from Sudan to the UK, in order to mail it to our individual 

donors in Canada and the US.

118 


It is a requirement from Kickstarter that you give gifts to your donors. 

The idea is that you incentivize donors to give to a particular project 

more money by saying, “Hey, if you give me a dollar, you’ll get a 

thanks or a pat on the back maybe. If you give me 10 dollars you 

might get a bumper sticker. If you give me 50 you’ll get a t-shirt ...” It’s 

like an incentive system with donors to feel gratified in giving. I think 

that’s the Kickstarter model. I don’t know if Indiegogo is the same, 

or if other crowdfunding sites are necessarily quite as incentivized. 

As far as challenges are concerned, regarding the project execution 

in Sudan, Sudan is not a country known for its civil rights – in fact 

we’re known recently for quite the opposite. The OUR SUDAN 

project is essentially a media project, unaffiliated with the State, and 

it’s also a not-for-profit project. So we knew what dangers there 

were for us in the making of this film and the risks involved in its 

message. There were a lot of challenges in that sense that coupled 

with the difficulties and obstacles in accessing crowdfunding sites 

from a sanctioned country like Sudan.

CHAPTER 5 

Digital security 

DIGITAL SECURITY 

5

120 


CHAPTER 5 

Digital security 

This chapter is a good start for organized groups or 

institutions that want to broaden their discussions 

and understanding of digital security, and put in 

place practical steps for digital security policies. It 

aims to heighten the sensitivity of groups at risk of 

targeting because of their online activities to the 

importance of digital security by exposing those 

groups to global and regional practices and trends 

regarding infringements on net freedoms imposed 

by State entities. 

Groups at risk include journalists, citizen journalists, activists and members 

of civil society. This chapter will also point users of this guidebook to useful 

resources for safe communication when browsing the internet and when 

using mobile devices, in addition to resources for digital activists and 

online journalists in need of special assistance during physical or technical 

emergencies. 

The chapter includes three expert interviews. One interview focuses on the 

basic measures of digital protection for those who have never taken steps to 

ensure their digital security. The second interview discusses the technology 

of “mesh networking” that can be used to connect communities in case of 

a network interruption or internet blackout, or in the absence of connectivity 

due to poor infrastructure. The final interview is with an active member of 

Sudanese civil society who reflects on the challenges facing civil society 

when it comes to protecting digital privacy.


Why digital security matters: global 

trends and the decline in net 

freedoms 

The shadow of Edward Snowden’s revelations 

It is no longer a contested matter. Today we are living through the lowest 

point of optimism when it comes to the transformative power of the internet 

since it was first created, a little over a quarter of a century ago. Perhaps 

nothing got us closer to this sentiment than Edward Snowden’s revelations 

in June 2013, which exposed the massive scale of the US National 

Security Agency’s (NSA) digital surveillance and monitoring activities that 

targeted regular citizens and extended beyond the US to friendly European 

countries. 257 

This historic leak prompted worldwide concern and debate about the right 

to digital privacy when using information and communication technologies 

(ICTs), including the internet. Data localization also became an issue, since the 

NSA leaks led some countries (Russia, Vietnam, Germany, India and others) 

to attempt to regulate the flow of data within their borders by requesting that 

international internet and technology companies store communication data 

pertaining to their citizens in servers inside their countries. 258 Internet freedom 

advocates have expressed concern that data localization is detrimental to 

a free and open internet, because it will make it easier for countries to spy 

on their citizens, may slow technological innovation, and may fragment the 

internet by limiting global communications and e-commerce. 259 

If any good has come from Snowden’s leaks so far, it is perhaps the global 

pushback by civil society and some nation States and a wider recognition 

that the right to privacy online is a human right. In December 2013, the 

United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution on “the right to 

privacy in the digital age,” which urges member States to review and reverse 

any policies that violate the right to digital privacy. 260 The resolution stresses 

that rights offline must be protected online and reminds member states that 

257 Wired. The Most Wanted Man in the World. August 2014. 

258 Forbes. Katharine Kendrick. Risky Business: Data Localization. February 19, 

2015. 

259 Lawfare Research Paper Series. Benjamin Wittes. Jonah Force Hill: The Growth 

of Data Localization Post Snowden. July 21, 2014. 

260 United Nations General Assembly. Resolution 68/167: The right to privacy in the 

digital age. 


5

122 


the right to privacy is included under existing international human rights 

law, specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 

ratified by 167 countries so far. 261 In March 2015 the UN Human Rights 

Council appointed its first ever Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy, 

whose mandate is to analyze and monitor the right to digital privacy globally, 

give guidance to governments and companies, and receive input from all 

relevant stakeholders, including civil society. 262 

Expansive scope of internet freedom violations 

Before Snowden’s NSA leaks, it was usually non-democratic States that 

came under the spotlight for violating internet freedoms, including big 

violators of internet freedoms such as Cuba, Iran and China. All three 

countries are notorious for controlling free access to, as well as freedom of 

expression on, the internet through a variety of tactics that are also used by 

many other nations. 

These tactics include but are not limited to: (1) Blocking and filtering online 

content; (2) cyber attacks, of which the most aggressive are Distributed 

Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS); (3) blanket blocking of opposition 

websites, including social media; (4) shutting down the internet at times 

of political unrest, such as protests or elections; (5) take-down requests, 

where bloggers are intimidated into taking down content; (6) physical 

attacks, including the murder of online journalists, citizen journalists and 

digital activists (Syria being the most deadly country for digital activists 

and online journalists in 2013); (7) paying commentators to manipulate 

discussions online; (8) introducing new laws that limit internet freedoms; 

and (9) monitoring and surveillance that prompt users in less democratic 

countries to exercise self-censorship. 263 

Global decline in net freedoms: increase in 

restrictive laws and harsh penalties 

According to Freedom House’s annual global survey, Freedom on the Net 

2014, there was a global decline in internet freedoms for the fourth year in 

a row in the period between May 2013 and May 2014 (the report has been 

261 UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Right to Privacy in 

the Digital Age. 

262 Electronic Frontier Foundation. Kimberly Carlson and Katitza Rodriguez. UN 

Human Rights Council Appoints Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy. 

March 26, 2015. 

263 Freedom House. Sanja Kelly. Freedom on the Net 2013: Despite Pushback, 

Internet Freedom Deteriorates.


published annually since 2009). 264 “Out of 65 countries assessed, 36 have 

experienced a negative trajectory,” with more people being detained and 

persecuted for their digital activities in the last year alone than in any other 

year. 

A notable trend prevalent in both democratic and non-democratic countries 

surveyed by the Freedom on the Net 2014 report was the increase in new 

laws that limit internet freedoms: 19 countries surveyed passed new laws 

“that increased surveillance or restricted user anonymity.” 265 In democratic 

countries these laws are often linked to national security concerns. This is 

specifically the case in France where, in reaction to the Charlie Hebdo attack 

of January 2015, the French National Assembly approved a law in May 

2015 that would allow the country’s intelligence services to monitor citizen 

communications without judicial oversight. French civil society has launched 

a campaign to raise awareness and urge citizen action against the bill. 266 

Freedom House also notes that the penalties for online expression are often 

much harsher than for similar offline penalties. For example, in Ethiopia 

six bloggers belonging to a collective of bloggers known as the Zone 9 

Bloggers have been imprisoned since April 2014, under terrorism charges, 

for blogging about human rights and social justice issues. Their name 

reflects the name of a prison in Addis Ababa that has 8 zones. Expressing 

the sentiment that the whole country is becoming a prison, they called 

themselves zone9ers, and blogged under the motto “We Blog Because We 

Care” to increase the visibility of political prisoners, human rights abuses by 

the State and social and cultural issues. 267 

The Middle East and North Africa saw the highest number of arrests of 

social media users and bloggers in recent times. Especially repressive were 

the countries of the Persian Gulf. Perhaps one of the most visible online and 

offline campaigns for an imprisoned blogger in the last year was that for the 

Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, who on May 2014 was sentenced by a criminal 

court in Jeddah to 10 years in prison, 1,000 lashes and a fine of more 

than USD 200,000. According to the court, Badawi had “insulted Islam” 

by setting up a liberal online platform that discussed religion and politics. 268 

264 Freedom House. Freedom on the Net 2014. 

265 Freedom House. Sanja Kelly, Madeline Earp, Laura Reed, Adrian Shahbaz, 

and Mai Truong. Freedom on the Net 2014: Tightening the Net: Governments 

Expand Online Controls. December 2014. 

266 Access. Despite opposition, France approves dangerous new surveillance law. 

May 5, 2015. 

267 http://trialtrackerblog.org. 

268 Global Voices Advocacy. Saudi Blogger Sentenced to 10 years in Prison, 1000 

Lashes. May 8, 2014. 


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124 



Internet freedoms in Sudan 

Sudan is no exception to the global trend. Since early 2011 there have 

been annually recurring street protests, mostly led and coordinated 

by youth who use social media to organize, mobilize and disseminate 

information. In response, the Sudanese government has increased 

its digital surveillance capacity, including the expansion of its Cyber 

Jihadist Unit. This unit (a department of the National Security and 

Intelligence Services) is responsible for the overarching surveillance of 

communications, including the tapping of phone calls of opposition 

groups, the hacking of social media, email accounts and opposition 

websites, and the intimidation of activists online. 

In the last decade, Sudan has invested heavily in its telecommunications 

infrastructure and by 2013 had a steadily increasing internet penetration 

rate of 23 percent (up from 21 percent in 2012 and 19 percent in 

2011). The mobile penetration rate was 75 percent by the end of 

2013, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 269 

There is healthy market competition amongst four telecommunications 

providers and in 2012 Sudan had the cheapest post-paid costs in the 

Middle East and North Africa. A growing number of citizens, especially 

youth, browse the internet on their phones. 

However, all of these infrastructural and economic advantages are 

highly compromised by the backdrop of a State that has little respect 

for the freedoms of expression, association, participation and peaceful 

assembly. The Sudanese regime is amongst the worst globally for 

obstruction of access to independent and diverse sources of information 

both offline and online. 

Since 2013, 270 Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net report has included 

a chapter on Sudan. In 2013 and 2014 Sudan was categorized as a 

“Not Free” country with a score of 65 (out of 100), as compared to 63 

in 2013. Out of 12 African countries surveyed, Sudan was one of three 

countries in the “Not Free” category, ranking eleventh – only ahead of 

Ethiopia. 271 

269 http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx. 

270 Freedom House. Freedom on the Net 2013: Sudan. 

271 Freedom House. Freedom on the Net 2014: Sudan.


Foreign Surveillance Weapons: Hacking Team 

In early July 2015, the extent of Sudan’s National Security and 

Intelligence Services’ (NISS) investment in surveillance or spying 

software was exposed when the Italian company, Hacking Team, 

which provides surveillance software and hacking tools to government 

agencies globally, was itself hacked. 272 A trove of 400 GB of the 

company’s files, including invoices and emails, was downloaded and 

made public by an anonymous hacker. 273 The documents revealed that 

NISS was a client of Hacking Team until the end of 2014, and that it 

had paid a total of EUR 980,000 in 2012 for Remote Control System 

(RCS) software. This software allows governments to install “implants” 

on targeted computers and then steal private information from emails 

or skype calls; or even spy on users via their computer webcams. 

The leaked documents also showed that Hacking Team was having 

difficulties to train NISS on using its hacking software technology 

because NISS’s staff did not have English language skills and had 

limited computer literacy. Moreover, the United Nations Panel of Experts 

on Sudan had started investigating Hacking Team’s links to Sudan in 

late December 2014. However, regardless of several attempts to obtain 

information, Hacking Team insisted that Sudan was not their client. 

Additionally, concerns that Hacking Team is violating the European 

Commission’s (EC) sanctions regime against Sudan have prompted a 

Dutch member of the European Parliament, Marietje Schaake, to ask 

for an EC investigation into Hacking Team’s activities and its links to 

oppressive and/or sanctioned regimes like Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia and 

Russia. 274 

#SudanRevolts (June-July 2012) 

In response to the wave of protests triggered by economic austerity 

plans – known as #SudanRevolts – that hit the country between June 

and July 2012, the Sudanese authorities implemented for the first 

time a large-scale crackdown on, and mass arrests of, citizens and 

activists using digital platforms to communicate, connect, coordinate 

and mobilize. 


5 

272 MotherBoard. Here Are All the Sketchy Government Agencies Buyingn Hacking 

Team’s Spy Tech. July 6, 2015. 

273 https://wikileaks.org/hackingteam/emails 

274 Thread Post. EU Lawmaker Wants Answers on Hacking Team Sales to 

Sanctioned Countries. July 7, 2015.

126 


The attacks on cyber dissidents during and after #SudanRevolts 

included the detention of digital activists, such as Usamah Mohammed 275 

(for posting a YouTube video), for up to two months; the forced exile 

of Sudan’s most prominent video blogger, Nagla’a Sid Ahmad; 276 and 

the kidnapping and torture of the Darfurian online journalist Somia 

Hundosa. 277 Moreover, one of the most high profile political detainees, 

Jalila Khamis from the Nuba Mountains, spent nine months in detention 

without charge. When she finally faced trial in December 2012, the main 

evidence against her was a YouTube video 278 taken by Sid Ahmad, 

in which Khamis testified about the shelling of civilians in the Nuba 

Mountains by the Government of Sudan. 279 (See chapter 2 for the case 

study on the digital campaign for Jalila Khamis.) 

Migration of newspapers online and internet 

blackouts during the September 2013 protests 

Since the separation of South Sudan in 2011, the deteriorating situation 

of press freedoms, particularly in the traditional print media, has led 

to a highly restrictive environment with an unprecedented number of 

confiscations of newspapers after printing – a practice that has severely 

impoverished newspapers. There have also been increased incidents 

of detentions and summons for interrogation of local journalists and 

digital journalists; banning of journalists from writing; and bringing of 

court cases against them by state entities. This has all contributed to a 

new trend: the establishment of online newspapers. Examples include 

the establishment of Al-Taghyeer 280 and Al-Tareeg 281 in 2013 and 2014 

respectively. 

The Sudanese regime tried to adapt to this trend by extending its 

censorship arm online to indulge in technical violence targeting 

independent and opposition voices. This included hacking the websites 

275 Global Voices. Maha El-Sanosi. Sudan: Protests Trigger Arrests of Twitter 

Activists. June 23, 2012. 

276 Girifna. A Citizen Journalist and Activist in Forced Exile. October 7, 2012. 

277 Girifna. NISS Tortures Journalist Somia Hundosa. November 3, 2012. 

278 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmA7pS83EBA. 

279 Girifna. Freedom on the Net (2013). October 13, 2013. 

280 http://www.altaghyeer.info. 

281 http://www.altareeq.info/ar.


of Sudan Tribune 282 and 3ayin 283 in April 2014 and hacking Sudanile, 

Hurriyat and 3ayin during the national elections in April 2015. 284 

During the protests of September 2013, Sudan experienced a 

nationwide 24-hour internet blackout that Renesys, the worldwide 

internet intelligence company, stated was “the largest governmentdirected 

Internet blackout since Egypt in January 2011.” 285 The 

Sudanese government denied that the blackout was intentional on its 

part, and blamed a fire in the offices of the telecom provider Canar. 

But many believe that the blackout was orchestrated by the National 

Telecommunications Corporation (NTC), a government agency, as part 

of the Sudanese government’s response to the protests – which were 

heavily documented by citizens who circulated videos and images 

online that reflected the violent response of the regime. In response 

to this government claim, Renesys stated that the internet blackout 

“strongly suggests a coordinated action to remove Sudan from the 

Internet.” 286 

282 Sudan Tribune. Sudan Tribune website hacked; Machar not target of 

assassination attempt. April 2, 2014. 

283 http://www.3ayin.com. 

284 Hurriyat (Arabic blog). Journalists for Human Rights (JHR): Security Agency’s 

New Hacking Campaign on Sudanese Websites. April 16, 2015. 

285 http://research.dyn.com/2013/09/internet-blackout-sudan. 

286 Dyn Research: the new home of renesys. Internet Blackout in Sudan. September 

25, 2013. 


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128 


Protection against viruses, 

spyware and malware 

Making sure that your computer is free of viruses and other malware is 

a basic step to protecting your data and privacy. Before you worry about 

encrypting your communications, browsing and data, you should ensure 

the safety of your entire operating system and hardware. The table below 

gives an overview of some of the threats linked to viruses and malware, 

and proposes preliminary steps to address them in order to get complete 

protection. 

The antivirus and anti-malware software programs suggested below (Avast 

and Spybot) are free and have been vetted by international digital security 

experts. There are, however, other paid options that are equally reliable.


Viruses and spyware: What they are and how to 

prevent them287288289290 

Type of malicious software 287 

Virus 

(Viruses 

include 

worms, 

macroviruses, 

trojans and 

backdoors.) 

What does it do? Destroys, 

damages and infects data, files, 

hard drives and external drives. 

How does it spread? Internet, 

email attachments, malicious 

websites, USB keys. 

Protection methods 

Use an antivirus at all 

times (free or paid). 

Avast 288 is a highly 

reputable free antivirus 

software for both PCs and 

Macs, and it automatically 

updates when connected 

to the internet. 289 

Note: do not install more 

than one antivirus at a 

time because it will slow 

down your computer and 

stop the antiviruses from 

working efficiently. 

Spyware 

Trojan 

Worm 

What does it do? While 

spyware does not destroy 

information or files, it runs on 

your computer without your 

knowledge and spies on every 

move you make with your 

mouse, as well as websites you 

visit and information you type. 

This information can then be 

communicated to someone else. 

How does it spread? Internet, 

email, malicious websites, USB 

keys. 

What does it do? Can destroy 

information or spy on you. 

How does it spread? Some 

websites can trick you into 

installing malicious software or 

can automatically download 

malware. 

What does it do? Destroys 

files and information. 

Note: Both trojans and 

worms are usually running in 

your computer without your 

knowledge or consent. 

Spybot 290 is a free 

program that protects 

from spyware and 

malware (i.e. trojans and 

worms). It works for PCs 

only. 

Note: Using Spybot 

with an antivirus 

simultaneously allows 

complete protection for 

PCs since in PCs an 

antivirus alone does 

not catch spyware and 

malware (trojans and 

worms). 


5 

287 Security in-a-Box. Protect Your Device from Malware and Hackers. 

288 https://www.avast.com/en-us/index. 

289 https://www.avast.com/en-us/index. 

290 https://www.safer-networking.org.

130 


Using phones and mobile devices 

securely 

This section will introduce the concept of end-to-end encryption and will 

discuss adding an additional level of security to passwords through the use 

of two-step verification or two-factor authentication. We also discuss basic 

tips to use mobile devices securely, as well as useful applications that can 

be downloaded on smartphones for improved mobile security, including 

secure text messaging, phone calls and video conferencing, sharing of 

images/photos, and sending secure and synchronized alarm messages to 

your network when you are in danger. 

End-to-end encryption 

The key to secure communication online is open source “end-to-end 

encryption.” The Freedom of the Press Foundation in its publication 

Encryption Works defined encryption as: 

[T]he process of taking a plaintext message and a randomly 

generated key and doing mathematical operations with the two 

until all that’s left is a scrambled, ciphertext version of the message. 

Decryption is taking the ciphertext and the right key and doing 

more mathematical operations until the plaintext is recovered. 291 

Thanks to the hard work of citizen cryptographers and the open source 

community, it is now possible to have adequate security online (even 

when using our phones) due to a decent selection of free open source 

applications. 292 However, ensuring your privacy when using encrypted 

applications requires that your network of friends and colleagues are also 

using the same digital protection measures. This needs discipline and 

education of your network about safer alternatives. 

Basic steps to mobile phone security 

Your phone is a tracking device. Even when it is switched off it is sending 

signals to the service towers around you allowing your mobile provider to 

geo-locate you easily. 293 The only way to stop this tracking is to switch off 

your phone and take the SIM card and battery out (or wrap your phone 

in aluminum foil if the battery is not removable). If you are tweeting (or 

Facebooking) sensitive information with your phone or smartphone, such as 

live-tweeting during a protest, make sure to: 

291 Micah Lee. Encryption Works: How to Protect Your Privacy in the Age of NSA 

Surveillance. Freedom of the Press Foundation. July 2013. 

292 Open source refers to programming code that is made public and that can be 

scrutinized in detail for flaws and corrected by other cryptographers. 

293 http://vimeo.com/57886217.


• Disable the geo-locator on your smartphone. 

• Create a new anonymous social media account. 

• Assume that your phone can be lost, stolen or confiscated by 

the authorities. Make sure that (1) your phone has a complex pin code, 

and (2) you log out of your social media accounts (and other sensitive 

applications) after each use. 

Tightening the grip on passwords through 

two‐step verification 

If you are wondering if your password is strong enough, Passfault is an 

online platform that evaluates the strength of your passwords by calculating 

the time it takes to crack each password. 294 All you have to do is plug in 

your password and you will get an analysis of the extent of its strength 

or weakness. Passfault does not save passwords tested by users of its 

website. 

Other than using long and complex passwords that are at least 20 characters 

long and considering the use of a password database, such as KeePass 295 

or LastPass 296 , using two-step verification (or two-factor authentication) 

can offer great added protection. This is particularly true if the password to 

your email or social media accounts is compromised. Two-step verification 

ensures that it is actually you – the owner of the account – who is accessing 

the account. A code is either sent to your mobile phone or generated by 

a smartphone application like Google Authenticator. 297 You then have to 

enter the code in order to access your account. This feature is becoming 

increasingly popular and is available with Google, 298 Facebook (Facebook 

calls it login approvals), 299 Twitter, 300 Microsoft 301 and others. 

294 https://passfault.appspot.com. 

295 http://keepass.info. 

296 https://lastpass.com. 

297 Google. Install Google Authenticator. 

298 Google. Google 2-Step Verification. At: https://www.google.com/landing/2step. 

299 Facebook. Andrew Song. Introducing Login Approvals. May 12, 2011. 

300 Twitter. Getting started with login verification. May 22, 2013. 

301 Microsoft. About two-step verification. 


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132 


Video and additional reading 

on mobile security and passwords 

● Video from Tactical Technology Collective: Your mobile phone, our 

tracking device. 302 

● Security in-a-Box has a chapter dedicated to mobile security with 

valuable tips on how to: Stay secure when using mobile phones 303 

and smartphones; 304 minimize the chances of being spied on 

when using your phone; and maximize the chances of staying 

anonymous. 305 (Available in Arabic. 306 ) 

● Security in-a-Box: Create and maintain secure passwords. 307 

(Available in Arabic. 308 ) 

● The Electronic Frontier Foundation: How to Enable Two-Factor 

Authentication on Twitter (And Everywhere Else). 309 

Encrypted applications for mobile phones 

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), 310 a leading organization in the 

fight for digital rights including digital privacy, has scrutinized more than 40 

messaging tools and applications and created a scorecard to tell users how 

secure these messaging applications are. Some of the most commonly 

used messaging tools and applications, such as Facebook chat, Google 

hangout, WhatsApp, Viber, and Skype, ranked poorly when it came to 

privacy and security. 311 Below are six phone messaging apps that got a full 

score or an almost full score according to the EFF’s evaluation of their safety 

and security. 

302 http://vimeo.com/57886217. 

303 Security in-a-Box. Use mobile phones as securely as possible. 

304 Security in-a-Box. Use smartphones as securely as possible. 

305 https://securityinabox.org/chapter-10. 

306 For mobile phones: https://securityinabox.org/ar/chapter_10. For smart phones: 

https://info.securityinabox.org/ar/chapter_11. 

307 Security in-a-Box. Create and maintain secure passwords. 

308 Security in-a-Box. Create and maintain secure passwords. (In Arabic.) 

309 Electronic Frontier Foundation. Parker Higgins. How to Enable Two-Factor 

Authentication on Twitter (And Everywhere Else). May 28, 2013. 

310 https://www.eff.org/about. 

311 Electronic Frontier Foundation. Secure Messaging Scorecard: Which apps and 

tools actually keep your messages safe? November 3, 2014.


Encrypted text messaging 

Cryptocat 312 is a free open source chat, file and photo-sharing application 

that can be used on your computer’s browser and iPhones (there is no 

Android application yet but one is planned for release). Additionally, 

Cryptocat can be used with Facebook to ensure secure chatting via 

Facebook messenger. 

Not only does Cryptocat use end-to-end encryption, it also ensures that 

messages are encrypted from the user’s side so that everything that enters 

Cryptocat’s servers is already encrypted. Hence, even the developers of 

Cryptocat cannot read your messages. 

You can download a plugin for Cryptocat on a number of browsers, including 

Safari, Chrome and Firefox. Another allure of Cryptocat is that you can chat 

anonymously. It is very easy to use and does not require that you open an 

account. To start a chat you have to login through your browser or phone 

application; choose a “conversation name” and “nickname;” and then share 

the conversation name with people you would like to talk to, via encrypted 

email or any other safe method. Each time you use Cryptocat, you can 

choose a different “conversation name” and “nickname.” There is no saved 

record of your chat. The moment you close the conversation it is all gone. 

surespot 313 is a free open source encrypted messaging application that 

works on both iPhones and Android. It permits texting, voice messaging 

and the exchange of images. surespot allows you to have multiple identities 

on one device. For added security, each time you open the application you 

will have to input your password. 


5 

312 https://crypto.cat. 

313 https://www.surespot.me.

134 


Video and additional reading 

on secure mobile messaging apps 

International Elevate Award 2014: Cryptocat. 314 A video that explains 

what Cryptocat is and how it works. 

What’s up with Crypto in WhatsApp? 315 This article explains why the 

popular phone messenger WhatsApp is still not fully secure regardless 

of the announcement in November 2014 that the app is now encrypted 

end-to-end. 

Your iPhone Can Finally Make Free, Encrypted Calls. An article about 

Signal, the first encrypted calling app for the iPhone. 316 

Encrypted phone calls and voice chatting 

RedPhone 317 is a free open source application that allows end-to-end 

encrypted phone calls for Android phones. RedPhone uses your phone 

number to make calls so you do not need to create another identifier. It allows 

you to use the main dialer on your phone and call using a WiFi connection 

or your phone data plan. The calls are encrypted as long as you are calling 

someone who is also using RedPhone or its equivalent for the iPhone, Signal. 

Signal 318 is the first free open source and encrypted voice call app for the 

iPhone (released in mid-2014). It is compatible with RedPhone (both Signal 

and RedPhone are made by the same company, Open Whisper Systems 319 ). 

Silent Phone 320 is made by the company Silent Circle, 321 which makes 

high-end encrypted applications for corporate clients. Silent Phone is 

therefore not a free application. It works with both Android and iPhones, and 

each subscriber gets a 10-digit number. When calling those not using Silent 

Phone, only one side of the conversation is encrypted. 

314 https://vimeo.com/elevatefestival/cryptocat. 

315 Me & My Shadow. What’s up with crypto in WhatsApp? December 14, 2014. 

316 Wired. Andy Greenberg. Your iPhone Can Finally Make Free, Encrypted Calls. 

July 29, 2014. 

317 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.thoughtcrime.redphone. 

318 https://itunes.apple.com/app/id874139669. 

319 https://whispersystems.org/#privacy. 

320 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.silentcircle.silentphone&hl=en. 

321 https://silentcircle.com/#apps.


Jitsi 322 is a free, encrypted off-the-record (OTR) chat and video conferencing 

tool that completely replaces voice and instant messaging programs such as 

Google Hangouts and Skype. It supports many popular instant messaging 

and telephony protocols including SIP, Jabber/XMPP (and hence Facebook 

and Google Talk), AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo! Messenger. 

Jitsi’s video conferencing option on your phone or computer’s browser can 

be accessed at https://meet.jit.si. You do not even need to open an account 

to use Jitsi. Jitsi creates a unique URL once you login that you may share 

with any number of people you want to include in the call. Remember to use 

encrypted email/messaging when you share the unique URL with others you 

are inviting. You can also protect the conversation by setting a password 

(use the lock icon on the top). Jitsi allows complete sharing of documents 

and attachments. It also works well in settings where the internet is slow. 

Jitsi can be downloaded as a software for PCs and Macs. 

Alerting family and friends in case of danger: The phone 

app Panic Button 

In mid-2014 Amnesty International 323 released Panic Button, 324 which is 

an app targeted at human rights defenders and activists at risk of sudden 

arrest, kidnapping or torture. Panic Button is an Android application that 

sends an SMS alert message and your location to a network of up to three 

contacts to let them know that you are in danger. To work well, however, 

the alert message that Panic Button sends needs to be set up in advance 

and your “emergency contacts” need to be notified ahead of time so they 

can act swiftly. To trigger an alarm message, users of Panic Button have to 

rapidly press the phone’s power button five times in five seconds until they 

feel a vibration. 


5 

322 https://jitsi.org. 

323 Wired.co.uk. Olivia Solon. App turns power button into power button for activists 

at risk. June 23, 2014. 

324 https://panicbutton.io/#home.

136 


Additional resources for mobile security: 

The Guardian Project 

The Guardian Project 325 provides a host of free open source 

applications for mobile devices including applications for encrypted 

phone calls (Ostel), 326 using a secure browser (Orbot) 327 on your phone, 

and chatting or messaging securely (ChatSecure). 328 

Mobile Security Guide 329 from the Guardian Project is a step-by-step 

guide prompted by questions: Your responses point you to the phone 

application most suited for a specific need. 

325 https://guardianproject.info/apps. 

326 https://guardianproject.info/apps/ostel. 

327 https://guardianproject.info/apps/orbot. 

328 https://guardianproject.info/apps/chatsecure. 

329 https://guardianproject.info/howto.


Resources for digital activists 

at risk 

With the global increase in surveillance and online censorship by 

governments, and the decline in freedom of expression online that involves 

unprecedented threats to online journalists as well as bloggers, digital 

activists and normal users of social media outlets, the need to provide both 

technical and physical assistance to digital activists at risk is rising. Below 

are a few organizations that provide a range of services (both technical and 

financial) to human rights defenders, journalists and digital activists. 

Access Now Digital Security Helpline. 330 This international NGO 

(headquartered in New York) has a responsive 24-hour security helpline, 

based out of Manila, San Jose and Tunis. It supports human rights 

defenders by giving technical support and personalized recommendations 

and guidance on improving secure communications and digital security and 

bolstering the security of the infrastructure of websites and social media 

against attacks. The helpline also does face-to-face consultations and 

referrals for capacity-building and trainings. 

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) 331 provides direct assistance 

to journalists at risk and their families for both digital and non-digital 

emergencies. Support includes: Legal funds for journalists in prison; 

relocation to safe havens; support for political asylum cases; and medical 

assistance. CPJ also has a useful Journalist Security Guide 332 that targets 

journalists operating in dangerous environments and gives them advice on 

risk assessment and digital security. 

Frontline Defenders. 333 This Irish NGO has had a security grants program 

since 2001 that targets human rights defenders at risk from a range of 

dangers, including: Assistance with digital and communications security; 

physical security; legal and medical support; and financial support to 

families of imprisoned human rights defenders. It funds both emergencies 

and general security requests for up to 7,500 Euros. 

Deflect. 334 This project provides free and specific technical assistance to 

independent media, human rights organizations and activists suffering from 

distributed denial of service (DDoS) hacking attacks that threaten to bring 

down their websites and censor their voice online. The Deflect project’s 

technology allows organizations and individuals who qualify for assistance 

to have websites that are resilient to DDoS attempts. The eligibility 


5 

330 https://www.accessnow.org/pages/tech#Digital%20Security%20Helpline. 

331 https://cpj.org/campaigns/assistance/what-we-do.php. 

332 https://cpj.org/reports/2012/04/journalist-security-guide.php. 

333 Frontline Defenders. Security Grants Programme. 

334 https://deflect.ca.

138 


requirements include organizations that have suffered from DDoS attacks in 

the past and fear future attacks. 335 

Digital Defenders Partnership (DDP). 336 Hivos (an international NGO 

based in the Netherlands and supported by the Dutch government) has a 

program for human rights defenders focused on digital activists. Support 

includes tools to circumvent censorship and provide assistance, in the form 

of small grants, to people facing digital emergencies; and legal protection 

to bloggers and activists who are on trial due to their online expression. 337 

Emergency financial assistance is also made available to civil society and 

media organizations under digital attack to help them mitigate threats and 

create threat models and response strategies. 338 

Digital First Aid Kit 339 is a useful self-diagnostic tool designed to help 

human rights defenders, bloggers and activists who are facing digital threats 

to better understand the risks to which they are exposed. The kit begins by 

enabling users to establish a secure communication and then goes through 

a series of questions about the user, and his or her devices and specific 

situation. This helps users to understand the challenges they face and 

when to request help from a specialist. The kit includes sections on account 

hacking, seizure of devices, malware infections, and DDoS attacks. 

Seed Alliance 340 is a small grants 341 program with geographic coverage that 

spans Africa, Asia and Latin America and a focus on: Improving the quality of 

digital openness; inclusion of minorities in nascent networked communities; 

bolstering digital access and freedom of expression online (including 

freedom of association, privacy, security and consumer rights); supporting 

innovative solutions; and deepening information networks. It also develops 

content, applications and solutions for timely and large-scale dissemination 

of information. The Seed Alliance is a collaboration established between the 

FIRE, 342 FRIDA 343 and ISIF Asia 344 grants programs. 345 The Africa region is 

supported by the African Network Information Center (AFRINIC). 

335 https://wiki.deflect.ca/wiki/Get_Protected. 

336 www.digitaldefenders.org. 

337 https://digitaldefenders.org/#subsection-emergency-grants. 

338 Ideas can be sent to ddp@hivos.nl for review of proposal ideas. Twitter handle: 

@DigiDefenders. 

339 http://digitaldefenders.org/digitalfirstaid. 

340 http://www.fireafrica.org/seed_alliance. 

341 http://www.fireafrica.org/grant. 

342 http://www.fireafrica.org. 

343 http://programafrida.net. 

344 http://isif.asia. 

345 For more information about grant categories see http://www.fireafrica.org/grant.


Foundations for safe online 

browsing and communication 

There is not one magical tool that will completely protect the privacy of 

your communications when you are surfing the internet. In this section we 

discuss a number of tools and software that, when used together, can 

give you an adequate level of protection. They include: HTTPS encrypted 

browsing; end-to-end encrypted emails; anonymous browsing through 

using Tor Project and/or a Virtual Private Network (VPN); and off-the-record 

(OTR) chat/instant messaging. 

HTTPS encrypted browsing: Means your 

connection to the internet is secure 

Make sure to check for HTTPS or for a lock icon in the address bar of your 

browser. The additional “s” indicates that your connection (or information in 

transit) to the internet is secure and encrypted, hence protecting you from 

being intercepted. (This technology is called Secure Sockets Layer or SSL 

encryption.) HTTPS secure connection is particularly important if you are 

about to give personal information, such as banking or financial details or your 

email password. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Tor Project created 

an HTTPS Everywhere extension for Firefox, Chrome, Firefox for Android 

phones and Opera browsers. HTTPS Everywhere extension automatically 

switches thousands of sites from the insecure HTTP to HTTPS. 346 

Nowadays most email providers (including Gmail, Hotmail and most 

recently Yahoo!) have an HTTPS encrypted connection. However, Gmail 

is more secure than other email companies, because Google submits 

a “transparency report” every six months. (Hotmail and Yahoo! have 

also started issuing transparency reports, but they are not as frequent 

and extensive as Google’s). 347 Google was a pioneer in issuing the first 

transparency report back in 2010, which urged companies like Facebook, 

Twitter and others to follow suit. 


5 

346 Electronic Frontier Foundation. HTTPS Everywhere. 

347 Google. Transparency Report. At: http://www.google.com/transparencyreport.

140 


End-to-end encrypted emails just got easier! 

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is the most secure protocol for end-to-end 

encrypted email. However, it is complex to use because it requires the 

creation of a public key that you share with others (to ensure that it is actually 

you), and a private key that you use to decrypt or open messages. It is also 

obligatory for both parties to communicate using the same method. This 

means that only those who are technically advanced use it. 348 

End-to-end encryption in email is nonetheless still highly recommended 

and a new generation of simpler tools is emerging. This includes Tutanota 

encrypted email, 349 a new open-source (German-based) encrypted email 

platform. Tutanota does not store passwords of its users (if you lose your 

password you have to create a new account). If you are communicating with 

someone not using Tutanota you can still encrypt emails with a password. 

Everything in your message is automatically encrypted, including the subject 

line, content and attachments (unencrypted messages are stored encrypted 

in Tutanota’s servers). This new end-to-end encrypted email platform is 

therefore much easier to use than traditional PGP encrypted email. 

348 Micah Lee. Encryption Works: How to Protect Your Privacy in the Age of NSA 

Surveillance. Freedom of the Press Foundation. July 2013. 

349 https://tutanota.com.


Essential Digital Security Resources 

The Surveillance Self-Defense 350 project by the Electronic Frontier 

Foundation (available in Arabic 351 ). This resource has extensive howto 

toolkits that include tips and information on safer communication 

tailored for use by Mac users, journalism students, activists, protestors, 

online journalists, digital security experts, and LGBTQ youth. It also 

includes a “security starter pack” for beginners. 

Security in-a-Box, 352 by Tactical Tech and Frontline Defenders, has 

practical how-to’s for configuring secure communications software, 

and advice on how to use social media platforms and mobile phones 

more securely. (Available in Arabic. 353 ) 

Speak Safe: Media Workers Toolkit for Safer Online and Mobile 

Practices. 354 A concise toolkit produced by Internews that targets 

media professionals. (Available in Arabic. 355 ) 

Me & My Shadow 356 is a website created by the Tactical Technology 

Collective that helps you trace the shadows you leave online and gives 

you tools to manage them. (Available in Arabic. 357 ) 

350 https://ssd.eff.org/en. 

351 https://ssd.eff.org/ar. 

352 https://securityinabox.org/en. 

353 https://info.securityinabox.org/ar. 

354 http://www.internews.org/sites/default/files/resources/Internews_SpeakSafeToolkit. 

pdf. 

355 http://www.internews.org/sites/default/files/resources/Internews_SpeaksafeToolkit_ 

Arabic_2013-06.pdf. 

356 https://myshadow.org. 

357 https://myshadow.org/ar. 


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Anonymous browsing: Tor and VPN 

What is Tor and what is it useful for? 

Tor is a free open source software that allows you to stay anonymous when 

you are online. 358 Tor does the following: 

• Protects your privacy by hiding your IP address (a very good indicator of 

your location). 

• Allows you to circumvent government censorship of blocked websites. 

• Encrypts all traffic within the Tor network. 

• Stops websites from tracking your online browsing habits. 

Tor is powered by a global network of more than 4,000 volunteer servers 

called nodes. When someone uses Tor to visit a website, instead of going 

to the website directly they are redirected to a connection that goes through 

three nodes (or circuits) before it finally exits into the public internet. It is 

like taking a long and convoluted way to your house because you suspect 

someone is following you, and you want to lose them. This distributed 

network makes those who are monitoring your traffic think that your location 

(IP address) is that of the last node your traffic exited from. Each time you 

use Tor you will have a different IP address because the path of your nodes 

will differ. 

How does Tor work? 

To use Tor you need to download the Tor browser bundle. 359 However, if 

you use Tor you still need to be diligent with security as Tor will only 

encrypt your information when you are inside the Tor network. Once 

you reach your final destination on the internet you will need to ensure that 

your connection is secure by using an HTTPS encrypted connection. 

A disadvantage often noted about Tor is that it slows down your internet 

connection because your traffic is being routed through multiple relays or 

358 https://www.torproject.org/index.html.en. 

359 https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en.


nodes. Tor is therefore not recommended for streaming video. Additionally, if 

someone is monitoring your traffic, they can see that you are using Tor and, 

in some countries like China, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have blocked 

access to Tor entry nodes or relays. 360 


Tor Animation. 361 This animation was created by the Tor Project. It 

explains what Tor is and how it works. (Available in Arabic. 362 ) 

How Tor Works. 363 An MIT video that illustrates how Tor uses a series of 

nodes or relays to protect anonymity. 

Psiphon-Beyond Borders. 364 A video that introduces Psiphon’s VPN 

service. 

360 MIT Technology Review. How China Blocks the Tor Anonymity Network. April 4, 

2012. 

361 YouTube. Tor Project. Tor Animation. May 17, 2015. 

362 https://youtu.be/6v0ga4f2myY. 

363 MIT Video. Conrad Warre. How Tor Works. 

364 YouTube. Psiphon. Psiphon – Beyond Borders. March 23, 2015. 


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Virtual Private Network (VPN) 

If you are looking for anonymous browsing that has all the benefits of 

Tor software in addition to a fast internet connection, a VPN might be a 

good choice. Like Tor, VPN offers anonymous browsing, hides the user’s 

IP address, bypasses censorship or blocked websites and encrypts traffic 

within the VPN’s network. 

VPN is faster because users are passing from their computers directly to the 

servers of the VPN service provider or company. However, it is important to 

note that the VPN provider has access to your traffic and information, and 

therefore must be trusted. 365 Moreover, a VPN connection will not protect 

you once you are on the public internet. As is the case with Tor, you will still 

need to connect securely via an encrypted HTTPS channel. 

Examples of trusted VPN services include: 

Securitykiss. 366 Created by a Polish company, Securitykiss works on both 

PCs and Macs and costs USD 50 per year. 

Psiphon 367 is a free open source VPN that works only on PCs and Android 

phones. It was created by Canadian activists. 

365 Surveillance Self-Defense. A Project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 

Choosing the VPN That’s Right for You. 

366 http://www.securitykiss.com. 

367 https://psiphon.ca/en/index.html.


Off-the-Record (OTR) chatting 

Who does not rely on at least one popular instant messaging (IM) or chatting 

tool, such as Facebook’s messenger, MSN, or Google’s Chat? Even if 

you connect to these services via an encrypted HTTPS connection, the 

fact is that these companies have your information and can hand it to the 

authorities if they are subjected to sufficient pressure. 

Off-the-Record (OTR) is an encryption layer or plugin that can be added to 

any IM or chat tool that supports OTR. 368 OTR tools do not host IM services 

themselves. They are third party clients that connect to the services run by 

others. Hence, OTR allows end-to-end encrypted conversations through 

many popular chatting services like MSN or Facebook messenger. Another 

thing that OTR chat does is verify the identity of those with whom you are 

talking. OTR services generate a new encryption key for every conversation. 

This feature is called “perfect forward secrecy” (PFS) and it holds true for 

zRTP-encrypted VoIP tools, as well as the chatting and video conferencing 

tool Jitsi, which was mentioned earlier in this chapter. 

Examples of free and open source OTR clients are Pidgin 369 and Adium. 370 

Pidgin is a chat program for PCs (Windows, Linux and UNIX operating 

systems) that permits you to log into multiple chat services at the same time 

(i.e. Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo!) using one interface. Pidgin is compatible with 

many chat networks and is available in a lot of languages, including Arabic. 

Adium, on the other hand, works with Macs (OS X operating systems) and 

supports a wide range of IM services. 

Otr.to is an easy to use browser-based OTR encrypted chat that works 

with Chrome or Firefox and does not require you to open an account or 

download any software. When you start a chat you are given a unique URL 

and ID. The chat starts when someone else opens the link or enters your ID. 


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368 https://otr.cypherpunks.ca. 

369 http://pidgin.im/about. 

370 https://www.adium.im/about.

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Interviews 

The basics of digital security 

In this interview we talk about your digital security with Eric 

Johnson, who works on aid projects aimed at improving access 

to information in developing countries – especially relating to cyber 

liberty and online safety for journalists and civil rights activists. 

Q1. You’ve worked with groups such as journalists and civil 

society activists and these groups often sit on sensitive 

information, and therefore a situation of loss of important 

information or data is highly possible. What are the most 

basic measures of protection that you advise for those who 

have never taken any steps to ensure their digital security? 

1. Update your software. Make sure you’re running only the 

very newest versions of all your software (your OS, your 

productivity software, your browsers, Skype, Acrobat Reader, 

Java VM) – fully patched, fully updated – and make sure your 

software stays patched/updated, always, all the time. This might 

require that your software (especially Microsoft Windows and 

Microsoft Office) be licensed. I realize this is a cost, but it’s a 

necessary one, and it’s not a lot. (For example, right now I buy 

MS Windows update licenses for about USD 90 per year, and 

Office costs USD 2 per month.) 

2. Wholly encrypt your hard drive. If you’re running the newest 

version of your operating system (Windows or Mac OS X), then 

you have whole-hard-drive encryption available to you (built in), 

but it’s not on. Turn it on!


3. Use https not http. Ensure all your online communication (IM, 

VoIP, email, social networking) is encrypted while traversing 

your country’s cyberspace. For IM & VoIP, use Skype. For email, 

use any of Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo. For SMS, use Facebook. 

The main thing is, if you’re using a browser, make sure the URL 

in the address bar always (while you’re communicating) starts 

with HTTPS (not just HTTP) – it’s that “S” which is providing the 

encryption. 

4. Keep a good antivirus. “Good” means reputable and everyday-self-updating, 

as well as running at all times on all the 

computers you use. 

5. Turn on multi-factor authentication everywhere possible, 

especially email, Facebook (Google calls it “two-step verification”). 

6. Do not use mobile phones for anything for which you want 

security. 

7. Back up regularly – perhaps in the cloud – so that if your 

device is lost/stolen, you still have your data. 

8. Never enter your password into a computer you do not control 

(e.g. a cybercafé computer). 

9. Use strong passwords: 

● Minimum 12 characters. 

● None of the passwords known by hackers to be used by 

everyone (e.g. “123456” or “password”). 

● Nothing an attacker could guess (your birth date, your 

spouse’s name, your dog, your hometown) – ideally, no 

“words.” 

● A mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and 

punctuation. 

● Unique password (i.e. do not reuse passwords across sites). 

You can use a password manager like LastPass 371 to generate 

secure passwords, that stores and remembers your passwords. 

Q2. What are the more advanced steps that can be taken 

by groups most at risk from situations like confiscation of 

equipment, hacking or surveillance? 

If you take all the above steps, you’re in good shape. If you want to 

be more secure you can also: 

1. Use OpenPGP to encrypt your email “end-to-end” – but 

this requires that both ends use it (e.g. Enigmail, SED, AGP, 

Mailvelope). 


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371 https://lastpass.com.

148 


2. Use Off-the-Record (OTR) to browse anonymously and 

encrypt your IM (instant messages) more securely even than 

Skype – which is already encrypted. (For example, use IM 

programs like Pidgin, Jitsi, ChatSecure.) 

3. Use ZRTP (for example, Ostel) to encrypt your VoIP more 

securely even than Skype. 

4. Use a proxy (such as Tor or a VPN) for all your online activity to 

prevent your ISP from knowing what you’re doing online. 

But really, these are overkill. Every compromise I’ve heard of (and 

that’s a lot!) was a result of not following the advice I give above 

under Q1. So, do not pay attention to the answers to Q2 unless/ 

until you’ve taken care of all the advice given under Q1. Prioritize! 

Q3. For activists and journalists who use social media heavily, 

either to raise awareness about an issue, share their work or 

to organize and mobilize, what steps can be taken to protect 

(1) their privacy and the privacy of those with whom they 

communicate, and (2) their physical security (especially since 

all new mobile devices have GPS technology that gives away 

your location). 

1. Beyond following the above steps for yourself, get your friends to 

follow these steps too. 

2. Turn off your phone. 

Physical security is far harder. 

Q4. In Sudan civil society, institutions and individuals suffer 

mainly from three types of cyber attacks: (1) the hacking of 

institutional websites (often news sites); (2) the hacking of 

Facebook accounts; and (3) the hacking of email accounts. 

(The last two sometimes result in permanent loss of access 

to the accounts.) What kind of measures can protect from 

such attacks? 

1. Keep your website’s hosting software thoroughly up-todate. 

You cannot count on your hosting company to do this – 

you have to regularly check it yourself. 

2. Make sure everyone who has login credentials follows the 

answers to your Q1; and 

3. Isolate a site’s login from the site itself (in other words, use a 

different domain/IP address). 

See the answers to Q1.


Mesh networking as a solution for poor 

connectivity or network interruptions 

Reliable internet access is not something we can always take for 

granted. Network interruptions are common during environmental 

crises, such as major storms and earthquakes. We have also seen 

governments shut down the internet during political unrest in places 

like, Egypt, Syria and Sudan. 

Is there a solution that can be available to wider audiences and 

close communities during an internet blackout? Apparently yes, 

and it is called “mesh networking.” To learn about this we talked to 

Nat Meysenburg, a Technologist at Open Technology Institute 372 

in Washington D.C. Nat is working with the Commotion Project, 373 

whose main mission is to provide open source communication tools 

for mobile phones, computers, and other wireless devices to create 

decentralized mesh networks. 

Q1. Can you explain for us the concept of mesh networks and 

give examples of settings in which its implementation has 

been useful? 

A mesh network is a network where each device in the network 

can talk to all the devices it can see, and pass information through 

all the devices it can detect. As a result you can pass information 

along a chain of devices. This is different from wireless setups that 

are deployed in most of the world, where your device is talking to 

one other device, and that one other device has been wired into the 

internet. In the case of mesh networks the devices don’t even 

have to be on the internet to communicate with each other. 

They are speaking from one device to another over a networked 

chain, which allows for rapidly changing networks based on needs. 

This is a very useful technology based on a number of scenarios. 

One is just giving basic access to information to communities where 

that access isn’t there. One example is in the town of Saeeda in 

Tunisia. There is a mesh network there that, while not connected 

to the internet, has the photocopy of the Arabic Wikipedia and 

thousands of public domain French ebooks and other resources. 

So, without being connected to the internet, this small town is able 

to get some of the rich information and content-sharing that the 

internet has to offer. 

In other places where the infrastructure hasn’t been built there is the 

Abaarso School of Technology in Somaliland, 374 which has a mesh 

network so that the students there can learn how to do internet-web 

projects and share with each other inside the school without having 


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372 https://www.newamerica.org/oti. 

373 https://commotionwireless.net. 

374 http://www.abaarsoschool.org.

150 


to depend on their weak and sometimes non-existent uploading to 

the internet (which is an optical link that runs across the desert). In 

that instance we are talking about a place in the world where no one 

is going to build a network infrastructure, so the school is able to do 

it themselves. 

The last example is another place where no one will build a network 

infrastructure, which is a bit surprising because it is in New York 

City. It is in Red Hook, Brooklyn, a neighborhood that has one of 

the largest concentrations of public housing. A mesh network was 

set up by a community organization there that provides access and 

applications to the people in the neighborhood. Red Hook is a good 

example of not only being able to provide constant and consistent 

[internet] access to that community, but also during Hurricane 

Sandy in 2012, the mesh network was one of the only pieces 

of communications infrastructure that was left standing in 

that neighborhood. It was used by the disaster responders to 

connect people [impacted by the hurricane] to the internet and find 

out what was going on and how they can get help. 

Q2. Where does the Commotion Project come in? What is its 

main goal and what services does it provide? 

The Commotion Project aims to be a fully open source wireless 

mesh networking platform that will target devices that are already 

on the ground in places. The idea is, in order to make this cheap 

and easy to do, we need to use what already exists in the (local) 

market all over the world, and then write the software to use that 

hardware so that all these devices already out there can be joined 

into a mesh network. Our goal is to support as much hardware as 

we can, and for communities to be installing commotion and setting 

up commotion. Our ultimate goal is one that is almost impossible 

to measure, which is for people to be installing a commotion mesh 

network that we don’t even know about. 

Q3. In order to benefit from the software services provided 

by the Commotion Project, what kind of technical know-how 

and/or hardware is required to get a mesh network up and 

running? 

There is a learning curve with wireless mesh technologies. This 

includes some basic skills of radio and a little knowledge about the 

software. Also, there is a huge community component such as, 

how to talk to your neighbors about putting devices around their 

community, how to attach those devices and where to put them. 

To that end the Commotion Project has put out the Commotion 

Construction Kit, 375 which is a full set of documentation that covers 

375 https://commotionwireless.net/docs/cck.


everything from how to talk to your neighbors, to how to mount a 

device, to how the software works. 

The goal there is that communities can build their capacity on their 

own to grow and maintain the network. The Construction Kit gives 

communities all the information they need to do that and it is available 

in English, French and Spanish. You can find the Construction Kit on 

our website, 376 where you can also get in touch with us if you have 

questions or [if you] possibly [want to] help us translate the kit into 

your local language. 

As far as hardware that is needed, it depends on the needs of 

the network and the community. For instance, if you are building 

a network that you’re hoping will stay in the community for a long 

period of time, it is advisable to get better quality hardware. By better 

I mean higher power radios and devices that are designed to do 

outdoor WiFi. These devices are less than USD 100 and are widely 

available. 

However, as I said earlier, our goal is to work with hardware that is 

already locally available. We are currently developing a software that 

can run on your laptop and turn your laptop into a commotion node 

– a device that can receive and pass traffic along the mesh network. 

Q4. What have been some of the main challenges that 

communities face when attempting to set up mesh networks? 

Is there free technical support available from your team at the 

Commotion Project? 

The challenges in general vary by location. For instance, in US cities 

like Brooklyn, there are technical challenges around how much radio 

signal is in your city because we are working with very weak radios, 

it’s very easy to have that signal crowded out by other signals. There 

are a lot of tall brick buildings in the neighborhood that block WiFi 

signals. However, there is nothing political that stands in the way of 

that mesh network. 

On the other hand, you can go to areas where there are no radios at 

all, and there you are not going to have technical problems, but you 

may have social problems that the community may need to deal with. 

In terms of technical support that we provide, we are trying to build 

a large community, with lots of people who can take questions. 

However, our development team is not big enough to support every 

commotion network in the world. We provide support as best as we 

can, but we can’t guarantee complete support. We like to answer 

questions and our goal is to train communities to support their 

mesh networks by themselves. As the project grows we’re trying 

to set up more training programs. 


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376 https://commotionwireless.net.

152 


Sudanese civil society and its digital security 

challenges 

Abdel-Rahman El-Mahdi is a member of Sudanese civil society and 

the founder and executive manager of the Sudanese Development 

Initiative (SUDIA), 377 a non-profit organization specializing in good 

governance, youth empowerment and the advancement of civil 

society and the media. 

Abdel-Rahman talked to us about the challenges Sudanese civil 

society faces when it comes to protecting its privacy and digital 

security while using the internet and other modes of information 

and communication technologies (ICTs). This is especially relevant 

in the context of the current environment in Sudan where we have 

seen in the early months of 2015 yet another wave of attacks on 

civil society that included the mass confiscation of newspapers, as 

well as closures of civil society and cultural organizations such as 

the Sudanese Writers Union and the Mahmoud Mohammed Taha 

Cultural Center. 378 

Q1. What are the most felt challenges you believe the 

Sudanese independent civil society is facing when it comes 

to lack of diligence with their digital security, whether online 

or offline? 

Foremost is the lack and/or weakness of robust and well-developed 

systems within the institutions. Most civil society organizations 

are underdeveloped in terms of their internal governance and 

organizational systems and procedures. Digital security is but one of 

a myriad of internal measures that need to be developed and put in 

place, and if organizational health is the measure it is not necessarily 

the priority. 

Q2. Despite the heavy price that the lack of digital security 

procedures is resulting in for civil society, we are not yet 

seeing a visible change in behavior. Why is that, and what do 

you think is needed to create this necessary shift? 

I would tend to disagree that lack of digital security is exacting 

a heavy toll on civil society. The toll that might be exacted when 

organizations are closed and have their equipment confiscated is 

the loss of data or the organizational electronic records and files, 

and as far as I know, none of the organizations that have been 

closed down within the NGO sector have complained of that. The 

heavier toll, which these organizations suffer from, is the actual loss 

377 http://sudia.org/index.php/about-us. 

378 Almarsad Alsudani (Arabic blog). With Nearing Elections: More Closures, 

Confiscations and Limitations on the Work of Civil Society. February 9, 2015.


of their equipment and assets more so than the loss of their data. 

Data is oftentimes backed up and if not can be recovered from other 

sources. 

So, in my opinion, digital security is not seen as a priority and therefore 

one is less likely to see organizations changing their behavior. It is 

more a fad and only in a select number of cases considered a priority 

and integrated into the organizational systems and the daily behavior 

of organizational staff and their affiliates. 

I believe that Sudanese institutions/organizations are more a 

reflection of the culture/tradition. Sudanese have an oral tradition of 

communication. Information is conveyed and communicated orally 

rather than in writing or digitally, even within organizations. This has in 

general been a cause of the inability of our organizations to become 

sustainable and institutionalized. As such digital security becomes 

a concern only when the organization’s business (in all senses) is 

transacted digitally rather than verbally. Without a real effort of civil 

society organizations to institutionalize we are less likely to see an 

importance attached to digital security. 

Q3. Are there any examples of protecting privacy that come 

to mind from Sudan that reflect good practice from within 

organized elements, when using information communications 

technologies in general? 

I can only speak from our experience at SUDIA. We have increasingly 

begun to value digital security and efficiency. This is reflected in the 

use of applications such as Google Drive and all the applications 

that come with it. Documents are shared and worked on by staff in 

the cloud, where document owners prescribe the level of sharing 

and the person/s with whom they would like to share documents. 

Collaboration on projects is also increasingly being shifted from 

the real world to the virtual, where platforms such as Mavlink and 

Basecamp allow people to collaborate on projects virtually and 

without having to be in the same physical space. These platforms of 

collaboration not only contribute to greater digital security but they 

also help build an institutional memory in relation to projects and 

offer a source of learning and reflection. 

Q4. Any parting thoughts? 

Firstly, digital security, like other internal organizational systems, 

will only take root in organizations when organizations have 

reached a certain level of maturity, where they begin to recognize 

the need to develop their internal systems if they are to continue 

to flourish and grow. Secondly, the leadership or top management 

within organizations will need to have a genuine appreciation and 

recognition that digital security is needed and will contribute to the 

organization’s growth and sustainability. Finally, yet importantly, 

digital security is oftentimes about changing digital behavior and 


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154 


norms, i.e. how we do things. That is the most difficult part. Making 

sure to log off your email account, frequently changing passwords, 

switching to using different programs and apps that one might not 

be used to, etc. Without perseverance and constant observation, 

even systems and policies that might be introduced might fail to 

bring about the required sustainable level of digital security within our 

civil society organizations.

Conclusion 

CONCLUSION

156 


Conclusion 

Social change is messy, complex, and often 

requires a timeframe of several generations, with 

the bulk of the work taking place offline – on the 

ground. Technology is therefore only one small 

ingredient in a complicated web of requirements. 

In oppressive environments especially, the important role of ICTs in 

amplifying marginalized voices, creating complex networks and allowing 

people, beyond the usual like-minded crowd, to connect and dialogue in 

relatively safer spaces, is likely to remain relevant in the foreseeable future. 

Every decade or so there are new innovations and trends in ICTs that 

change the fabric of human interaction. Therefore, technology itself is 

ephemeral, and what is more lasting is how individuals, organized groups 

or communities, whether loosely organized or institutionalized, use ICTs to 

peacefully address social justice challenges and to bring about peaceful 

social change. Hence, the focus of this guidebook has been on strategies, 

tactics and ICT-based tools that enable such social change to happen; as 

opposed to explaining how the technologies themselves work. 

One longer-term value this guidebook hopes to offer is through the in-depth 

interviews with a diverse array of experts and practitioners, and the case studies 

that provide a wealth of practical perspectives on how collective organized 

action that is using ICTs strategically and creatively (and often in oppressive 

and/or developmentally challenging environments), can lead to positive change. 

This guidebook, to some extent, also offers a focus on clarifying processes 

and workflow when using ICTs for organized campaigning, such as the 

sections on “How to Organize a Social Media Advocacy Campaign” or 

“How to Run a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign”. While capturing, 

documenting and improving upon processes and workflow may seem 

simple or natural for institutionalized civil society groups, a sizable amount 

of collective action today is taking place by citizens who are connecting and 

networking offline and online, without prior experience in campaigning or 

activism. And who are organizing horizontally and in a decentralized fashion 

and pouring a lot of effort into identifying processes that work for them – 

often having to start from scratch every single time and failing to document 

or keep a track record that others can build upon. 

The possibility of allowing civil society, as well as all citizens, to organize 

more strategically is an opportunity that calls for creating more robust, 

multilingual platforms that make such knowledge about easy-to-follow 

steps and successful digital campaigning tactics and case studies more 

readily available in an accessible, non-technical language. In this regard this 

guidebook only touched the surface.


Notes 

CONCLUSION

158 


Notes

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